UNION WITH IRELAND.
EVIDENCE taken before the Committee of the Ikish House of Commons
on the subject of The Legislative Union-.
Orrf,.
_(.,
_iy The House of Commons, fo 6e i-_-pn»(ca', 12 Ju/jt 1833,
EVIDENCE Before The Committee of the Whole House, On His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant's Message respecting
A Legislative Union with Grea.
-Britain.
Mr.
Jos/iwa Pim, Examined.
QAYS he has read the articles of Union respecting the Trade between the Countries ; he ^ comes before the Committee without previous intimation, and is not prepared to go into general observations on those articles; he is a general merchant, and is conversant in the cotton trade; with respect to raw cottons, thinks they are not likely to be affected by the propositions; as to manufactured cottons, the propositions would be fatal to them.
The cotton manufacture took root in this country subsequent to 1782, and has gradually advanced since; the import of raw material has also increased; considerable increase of importation of spun cotton, which implies increase of manufacture; one mill erected near Celbridge ; much cotton spun and manufactured in Ireland; the duties on spun cotton protect Irish spun cotton, but not to such an extent as to prevent importation of spun cotton, which is an increasing trade, with or without a duty on spun cotton.
The Irish manufacture could not exist without a hio-h duty in its favour.
Manufacturers have got and required Parliamentary aid since 1782 ; could not go on without high duties; the knowledge of existing duties, and confidence m their continuance,induced many manufacturers to go on; if taken off, some manufacturers would suffer to the amount of their entire property ; thinks the existing duties on calicoes and muslins are prohibitory, and thinks them necessary for Irish manufacture; labour 111 the cotton manufacture is lower in England than in Ireland; the cotton manufacture is well established in England, is not yet so in Ireland ; he views the cotton manufacture only as regards the manufacturer, and not the consumer; he does not see what the consumer has to do with the question before the Committee.
Mr.
Jo/tn Orr, Examined.
Says he is a muslin manufacturer and printer of calicoes; thinks the proposed measure of Union would ruin his tr^de entirely; causes are various; fuel plenty in England, labour cheaper, great machinery, has long enjoyed the exclusive monopoly of their own market; are resorted to for various manufactures from all quarters of the world; a cuhco printer therefore in England is under no apprehension of printing 1 000 or 2,000 pieces of a ceitaii.
fancy, consequently if fancy is approved, he sells nine-tenths immediately at a profit, the remaining tenth might be heavy on his hands, and ,f the manufacturers in Ireland were not guarded by high duties, that tenth would be sent here and sold at a loss even of twenty or thirty per cent, to the English manufacturer, which would be good policy ; when he embarked in the manufacture of cotton in Ireland, he was engaged in Scotland in the muslinmanu-facture, and it was the protection given him there that induced him to embark in the business here; never would have expended the money he has done had he thought those duties would have been withdrawn; printing of calicoes is a fancy trade; the measures now proposed would give a decided preference to English manufacture ; thinks it would be a false and treacherous policy in aWion to encourage a manufacturer to come from another country under the faith of protecting duties, afterwards to be taken off, which would be to rob him, he has been here 25 years ; less than the present protecting duty would be impolitic ; it pievents the English merchant from sending the redundancy of his manufacture here to overpower the Irish manufacturer ; the present duty is as a protecting duty near 50 per cent ; <,alue of cotton goods now manufactured in Ireland annually supposes to be 750,000/.
he means Ihe whole of the cotton manufacture; he employed previous to August 1796 above3,000 people; not so many at present; a great shock has been felt in the cmton trade, horn the 517.
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