It appears by the returns from the metropolis, that the children bound to manufacturers in the country have generally been apprenticed on the same day, in numbers of from five or six to forty or fifty. They have not unfrequently been taken back to their parents, and sometimes after having been bound, have been assigned to another master. In the parish of Bermondsey, out of twenty-five apprenticed to manufacturers, sixteen, it is said, did not go, but no reason is given for it; and in several instances, after the children have been taken into the country, they have been returned to the parish, in consequence of the surgeon having pronounced them unsound. It appears also, that of the whole number of parish apprentices included in the above returns, no less a proportion than three-fourths have been bound to masters connected with the cotton manufacture. Most of the remarks, therefore, which they conceive it their duty to make, will be more directly applicable to that branch of employment; though many of their general observations, as to the impolicy of removing children to a considerable distance from their parents, as well as from those whose duty it is to see that they are properly taken care of and treated, are equally applicable to all professions. gisters kept as above mentioned, afforded for that purpose. In the populous districts of England, whether that population is caused by manufacturers or by other employments, the same causes which produce it provide support for the inhabitants of all ages, by various occupations adapted to their means. Thus in manufacturing districts, the children are early taught to gain their subsistence by the different branches of those manufactures. In districts where collieries or other mines abound, they are accustomed almost from their infancy to employments under ground, which tend to train and inure them to the occupation of their ancestors: but in London the lower class of the population is not of that nature, but is composed of many different descriptions, consisting of servants in and out of place, tradesmen, artisans, labourers, widows, and beggars, who being frequently destitute of the means of providing for themselves, are dependent on their pa rishes for relief, which is seldom bestowed without the parish claiming the exclusive right of disposing, at their pleasure, of all the children of the person receiving relief. The system of apprenticeship is therefore resorted to of necessity, and with a view of getting rid of the burthen of supporting so many individuals; and as it is probably carried to a greater extent there than any where else, for the reasons here stated, your Committee has been enabled to form an opinion, without the necessity of referring to any other part of the kingdom, whether it could be discontinued, without taking away from the parishes the means of disposing of their poor children. It certainly does appear to your Committee, that this purpose might be attained, without the vio In considering this subject, it is necessary to advert more particularly to the causes and circumstances attending the original appointment of a committee. A Bill having been brought into the House four sessions ago, at the desire, and under the direction of one of the most populous manufacturing districts of this kingdom, the professed object of which was to prohibit the binding of parish apprentices to above a certain distance from the abode of their parents, and making other regulation of humanity, in separating children lations in the management of them, some of the parishes of the metropolis menaced an opposition to the Bill, as taking from them the means of disposing of the children of the poor belonging to them, in the manner in which they had before been accustomed to do. It was therefore judged expedient to ascertain the extent of the practice which had prevailed, in order to form a judgment of the necessity of continuing it; and with that view, as well as for the reasons before mentioned, these returns were called for. There was also another reason for confining the returns to the metropolis and its vicinity, exclusive of the facility, which the re forcibly, and conveying them to a distance from their parents, whether those parents be deserving or undeserving. The peculiar circumstances of the metropolis, already alluded to, may at first seem to furnish an argument in favour of a continuance of this practice; but it can hardly be a matter of doubt, that appren tices, to the number of two hundred, which is the yearly number bound on the average of ten years before mentioned, might, with the most trifling possible exertion on the part of the parish officers, be annually bound to trades and domestic employments, within such a distance as to admit of occasional intercourse with a impolicy of binding parish apprentices in the manner in which they are usually bound, and attempting to make regulations with a view to their better treatment, if these wholesome regulations can be en parent, and (what is perhaps of more consequence) the superintendence of the officers of the parish by which they were bound. That this is not attended with much difficulty seems evident, from the fact that many parishes have never fol-tirely done away by the act of two malowed the practice of binding their poor children to a distance, though quite as numerous as those in which this practice has prevailed; and that some parishes which had begun it, have long discontinued it. gistrates for Middlesex or Surrey, who can, without any notice or previous intimation, defeat these humane objects, by binding scores or even hundreds of children to manufacturers in a distant county, and thus increase the very evil which it has been endeavoured to check or prevent. Indeed in so slovenly and careless a manner is this duty frequently performed, and with so little attention to the future con In making these observations, your Committee beg to be understood as not extending them to the sea service, in fa vour of which they make a special reservation, on account of considerations ofdition of the children bound, that in frethe highest political importance connected with the maritime interests of the country. They therefore carefully abstain from recommending any interference with the law as it now stands, which admit of binding parish apprentices to the King's or merchants' naval service. The system of binding parish apprentices, in the manner in which they are usually bound, to a distance from their parents and relations, and from those parish officers whose duty it is to attend to their moral and physical state, is indeed highly objectionable; but the details and the consequences are very little known, except to those persons to whom professional employment, local situation, or accident, may have afforded the means of inquiry and information on the subject. There are, without doubt, instances of masters, who in some degree compensate to children for the estrangement which frequently takes place at a very early age from their parents, and from the nurses and women to whom they are accustomed in the Workhouses of London, and who pay due and proper attention to the health, education, and moral and religious conduct of their apprentices; but these exceptions to the too general rule, by no means shake the opinion of your Committee as to the general impolicy of such a system. The consideration of the inconvenience and expense brought on parishes, by binding apprentices from a distance, is of no weight, when compared with the more important one of the inhumanity of the practice: but it must not be kept out of sight, that the magistrates of the Wost Riding of Yorkshire, or of Lancashire, who are of all others the most conversant with the subject, may in vain pass reso lutions, as they have done, declaring the quent instances the magistrates have put their signatures to indentures not executed by the parties. Two of these indentures have been submitted to the inspection of. your Committee, purporting to bind a boy and a girl from a parish in Southwark to a cotton manufacturer in Lancashire, and though signed by two justices for the county of Surrey, neither dated nor executed by the parish officers, nor by the master to whom the children were bound. Under these indentures, however, they served; and on the failure of their master, about two years after this binding was supposed to have taken place, these poor children, with some hundreds more, were turned adrift on the world, one of them being at the age of nine, and the other of ten years. It is obvious that these considerations apply equally to the assignment of parish apprentices as to their original binding, and therefore the restriction of distance, proposed in the latter case, should be extended to all parish apprentices, who during the term of their apprenticeship are assigned to another master; nor should any master have power to remove his apprentice beyond the limited distance, as such power would have a direct and immediate tendency to defeat the object of these regulations. Your Committee forbear to enter into many details connected with the subject of apprenticeship of the poor, which, though in the highest degree interesting and worthy of the attention of the House, are yet in some measure foreign to the immediate object of their inquiry. They cannot, however, avoid mentioning the very early age at which many of these children are bound apprentices. The evils of the system of these distant removals, at all times severe, and aggravating the miseries of poverty, are yet felt more acutely and with a greater degree of aggravation, in the case of children of six or seven years of age, who are removed from the care of their parents and relations at that tender time of life; and are in many cases prematurely subjected to a laborious employment, frequently very injurious to their health, and generally highly so to their morals, and from which they cannot hope to be set free under a period of fourteen or fifteen years, as, with the exception of two parishes only in the metropolis, they invariably are bound to the age of twentyone years. Without entering more at large into the inquiry, your Committee submit, That enough has been shown to call the attention of the House to the practicability of finding employment for parish apprentices, within a certain distance from their own homes, without the necessity of having recourse to a practice so much at variance with humanity. The said Report was ordered to be printed. PETITION FROM THE BRITISH INHABITANTS OF ROTTERDAM.] The following Petition from the British Inhabitants of Rotterdam; praying for pecuniary Aid to repair and reinstate the English Episcopal Church there; was laid before the House, and ordered to be printed. "To the Right Hon. the Lords dividuals, by which means the present building was erected at an expense of nearly 12,000l. sterling: "That during the years of trouble and desolation which followed the French invasion, this building became seized by that government, and suffered the greatest abuses, by being converted into an bospital, and afterwards a storehouse: That during the interval of peace in 1802, the period was too short to reinstate the building, and make it fit for resuming Divine Service; the war soon broke out, the church was again seized by the French, and threatened to be confiscated as a national domain belonging to British subjects, which however was with difficulty resisted by some of your petitioners, but who could not prevent the French government from appropriating it to the service of the marine, who cut down the oak pews, destroyed the organ, took up the pavement, broke all the windows and ceiling, while the roof, gutters, timbers, and principal parts of the outside of the church were year after year suffered to go to decay, for want of the necessary repairs; which your petitioners had not the means or power to prevent: "The glorious successes of Great Britain and her Allies, having among other nations happily delivered this country from foreign oppression, and restored to it its former free and protective Government: your petitioners, anxious to be Commis-gether in the worship of the Church of enabled again to assemble themselves toEngland, most humbly approach your lordships, praying that they will be pleased to grant them the necessary pecuniary aid to accomplish so desirable an object for the benefit of themselves and their children, as well as the numerous class of his Majesty's subjects constantly employed in the shipping trade between Great Britain and this Country: sioners of his Majesty's Treasury. "That your petitioners having, until the year 1794, enjoyed the free use and comfort of their religion, were, most of them, from the invasion of this country by the French armies, obliged to quit it, together with their clergyman, at that period: "That their Church is a handsome detached brick building, and was erected in 1706 and 1707, by means of the liberal contribution of her majesty queen Anne of glorious memory, his grace the duke of Marlborough, and the officers and privates of her majesty's army and navy; to which were added subscriptions from the two Universities of England, dignified and other clergy as well as nobility, and in "Your petitioners beg humbly to state, that according to an accurate survey made by the government architect of this department of Holland, he has reported that it will take the sum of 4,500l. sterling, to put the Episcopal Church in complete repair, and reinstate the same as it was heretofore fit for the performance of Divine Service, the brick-work and outside shell of the building being still in good order. "Your petitioners are under the necessity of stating to your lordships, their utter inability to raise the sum, or any part of it, and your petitioners will still "Rotterdam, July, 1814. "(Signed) James Le Marchant, jun. G. P. Becher, Catherine Bastre, Anna Mary ACCOUNT RESPECTING THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT.] The following Account was laid on the table of the House : An ACCOUNT of the Amount charged by the Bank of England, against the Public, for the Management of the PUBLIC DEBT, including the Charge for Contributions on Loans and Lotteries, in the Years 1792, 1793; 1813 and 1814; for each Year respectively; stating the Rate of Charge on the Amount of the National Debt, and on Contributions on Loans and Lotteries; and the whole Amount of such Charge under each head respectively. CHARGE for Management of the Public Debt, from 5th July 1791 to 5th £. S. d. £. s. d. 98,803 12 5 ...Do... for receiving Contributions on the Lottery, for the Service of the Year 1792.... 1,000 0 0 1 99,803 12 5 CHARGE for Management of the Public Debt, from the 5th July 1792 .... 98,273 19 3 CHARGE for Management of the Public Debt, for one Year ending 5th ...Do......Do......of Life Annuities for Do.........at the rate of £.340 CHARGE for Management of the Public Debt, for one Year ending the ...Do...for receiving Contributions on the First Loan, for the Service of RECAPITULATION: The Total Amount of Charge of Management........ for receiving Contributions on Loans HOUSE OF LORDS. Wednesday, April 12. ESCAPE OF BUONAPARTE FROM ELBA.] The Marquis Wellesley rose, pursuant to notice, to call the attention of the House to the Treaty entered into with Buonaparté at the conclusion of the late war. Notwithstanding, he said, the commanding situation which we occupied at the close of that war, and notwithstanding the glorious achievements which we had performed in the course of it, a work if not so glorious, yet still more important, remained to be accomplished, namely, to provide for the complete and permanent exclusion from power of that person who had so long continued to disturb, or he might say, to desolate the world. With respect to the character of that person, he had on both sides of the House expressed, as he entertained, one uniform opinion. He had ever considered that person as the main spring of the system which it was peculiarly the duty and the interest of this country to resist; but although he had so regarded that person, although he had viewed in him the most active and efficient advocate or leader of that system which the French Revolution had produced, still he had never ceased to think that person most likely to expose this very system to destruction, provided there was sufficient concert among the Powers of Europe to avail themselves of his errors. So that from the character of that very person, who was the champion of this perilous system, he was led to calculate upon its dissolution, provided the other Powers were in a state to take advantage of the circumstances which his indiscretion was likely to create. Such were the general principles which prevailed in his mind, and he must suppose that such was the impression of the noble lords on the ministerial bench; for they always declared that they considered the person alluded to as the main, if not the sole, spring of the system against which this country had waged war, and of course, according to their sentiment, the permanent exclusion of that person from power was a most important object to this country and to the world. Under these circumstances, then, he could scarcely apprehend any controversy upon this proposition-that the two first objects for consideration, when the Allies were in possession of Paris and of France, were, first, the exclusion of the (VOL. XXX.) person referred to from power, and secondly, the provision of adequate means against his return to power, in order to avert the resurrection of that mischief which had so long agitated and afflicted mankind. On the propriety of guarding against such peril, he calculated upon the concurrence and sanction of the noble earl (Liverpool); yet what was the conduct of our minister upon the occasion alluded to? On that occasion, he contended, it was the duty of our Government to take the lead. Inasmuch as it had taken such a distinguished lead in carrying on the war, and in bringing it to such a glorious termination, it became the province of this country to take a transcendent part in the transaction upon which he was about to animadvert. Our Government, then, should not have shrunk from its duty; and it had a most important duty to performnot a duty, perhaps, so much covered with laurels, but one certainly as important to the happiness of mankind, and to the interests of this country, as any that could be imagined; for it then remained to arrange how the world was to be protceted from the return of that calamity to which it had been so long subjected. After all the sufferings and endurances which this country had undergone-after greater sufferings, perhaps, than any nation in the history of the world had ever experienced after we had so nobly and gloriously struggled, our minister was bound to take, nay, bound to insist upon a lead in the transaction that was completely to terminate the conflict, by putting an end for ever to the power of that person who was its principal cause and support. But this duty was neglected, and the opportunity was lost of rendering a most material service to Europe and to this country. Ministers, however, offered some excuse for their conduct, in declining to do that which ought to have been done, and from which no rational or firm statesman would have shrunk:-but this excuse was really such, that he should have thought it a libel upon ministers to advance that which was gravely stated in the Papers upon the table. In these Papers it was alleged, truly, that another Power had entered into an engagement before our minister came up, that is, a day or two before our minister's arrival at Paris; and nothing, therefore, remained for our minister, but to accede to that engagement, or to continue the war, and to involve France in convulsion. Such was the allegation; or excuse, and he (2 N) |