8 CONTEST AGAINST [1812. 



Manchester, and Liverpool to deluge Parliament with 

 petitions against the policy of the Orders, and to tender 

 evidence to prove the great injuries inflicted. 



As counsel for the merchants, manufacturers, and 

 traders, I was heard at the bar of both Houses, and 

 produced an overwhelming body of evidence in support 

 of the petitions. This began in the spring of 1808, 

 but all attempts to move the ministers proved unavail- 

 ing ; and it was not till four years after that there 

 appeared any hope of a more favourable result. 



Throughout all the early part of 1812, I had been 

 in constant correspondence with leading men in the 

 manufacturing districts, not only on the state of trade 

 and the distresses, but on the not ill-grounded appre- 

 hensions of a war with America, and the fears lest 

 these combined evils might lead to acts of violence 

 from those who considered the distress they were 

 suffering from altogether due to the mischievous policy 

 of the Government. 



The following letter, which I wrote to one of the 

 leading manufacturers, will more fully explain this 

 state of things, and my opinion : 



TO J. WALKER, ESQ. 



" LONDON, March 6, 1812. 



" SIR, I am firmly persuaded that nothing is wanted 

 to obtain such a change of measures as will relieve the 

 present unexampled distresses of the manufacturing 

 counties, but a firm and united representation of those 

 distresses to Parliament, in temperate language and 

 accompanied with peaceable conduct. By pursuing 

 this course, I am very sanguine in the expectation that 

 one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, evil which 



