Aug.] 



CHRONICLE, 



103 



ject of the revenues of the 

 clergy. The filling of vacant 

 ecclesiastical dignities and bene- 

 fices is suspended for two years ; 

 the revenues will be received into 

 the public treasury to assist the 

 payment of the public debt and 

 its interest. His Holiness, touched 

 with the representations of his 

 Catholic Majesty, has been 

 pleased to authorize this measure, 

 which has not yet improved the 

 state of our public funds, for our 

 non-consolidated Royal vales 

 constantly lose 84 per cent, the 

 consolidated 40 per cent, and 

 the vales ordinaires, that is to 

 say, those that have not been 

 presented for consolidation, 75 

 per cent ; such is the state of our 

 public credit. 



They are slowly employed at 

 Cadiz in the repairs of some 

 vessels ; the poorness of our 

 treasury does not allow that ac- 

 tivity to be bestowed on our 

 labours which circumstances 

 would require. 



(From Wheeler's Manchester 

 Chronicle of Saturday, Au- 

 gust 15.) 



" We are sorry to observe that 

 the question respecting wages, 

 which has been so long pending 

 between the masters and the 

 operative spinners, still remains 

 unsettled ; and that the same 

 spirit of hostility continues to be 

 shown to those men who are dis- 

 posed to return to their lawful 

 employment, which has so re- 

 peatedly and daringly been 

 offered in the course of this alarm- 

 ing contest. We have also noticed 

 the various papers which have 

 been circulated, and placarded 

 upon our walls, to mislead the 

 public, and to excite the men to 



continue in their illegal combina- 

 tion ; and we deem it necessary 

 that the public should be correct- 

 ly informed, and that statements 

 void of truth should not remain 

 uncontradicted. We have there- 

 fore taken some pains to procure 

 correct information, and we can 

 pledge ourselves that the facts 

 we now state are authentic. 



" During the greatest part of 

 the years 1816 and 1817 the 

 weavers, and almost every other 

 class of manufacturers and la- 

 bourers in Lancashire, excepting 

 spinners, suffered excessively 

 from low wages and want of 

 employment. The spinners had 

 full and constant work, and high 

 wages during the whole of the 

 time. No class of people have 

 had such constant and uniform 

 employment for the last twenty- 

 eight years as they have had ; and 

 this advantage the spinner enjoys 

 at the risk and expense of h's 

 employer : for such is the nature 

 of the trade, that when once a 

 cotton-mill is completed, and 

 fully set to work, it cannot be 

 stopped, or even interrupted, 

 without great loss to the proprie- 

 tor. The interest of his sunk 

 capital, his rent, insurance, salaries 

 of principal servants, decay of 

 machinery, &c., are nearl}' the 

 same whether his mill be standing 

 or going; and these amount to so 

 heavy a loss, and he frequently 

 finds himself in such a situation, 

 that he must continue to employ 

 all his people at full work, and 

 for many months together, al- 

 though he cannot sell to a profit. 



" The working spinners have 

 not only enjoyed this constant 

 employment, but they have had 

 much higher wages than any 



other 



