Exhibition Addresses. 187 



prospects held ont to them, they joined in the cry for cheap food, for- 

 getting that cheap food at that time meant lower w^ges. At that 

 meeting one or two individuals ve7itured to tell Mr. Bright and his 

 friends that, having been deceived before time by delusive promises, 

 they were apprehensive the glowing prospects foreshadowed by them 

 miglit never be realized. A kind-hearted, sympathizing Quaker 

 lady, still living, who had become enthusiastic on cheap food, got up 

 in the meeting, and addressing herself to one who had expressed 

 doubts, said, " Well, if there cannot be a living got at silk, the hands . 

 must turn to cotton," which was received with loud acclamations by 

 the meeting. 



Present. 

 In a leading article of the Tijues of Friday last, the 23d inst., it is 

 stated that Macclesfield has now 1,000 empty houses. I would, there- 

 fore, suggest to the Lancashire spinners and manuflicturers to follow 

 the example of one Lancashire company, which has already com- 

 menced spinning on an extensive scale, and has also nearly completed 

 a shed calculated to hold 1,400 looms for cotton. If others would 

 tlius similarly invest capital here, the families who were compelled to 

 leave Macclesfield through want of employment, would soon return 

 again and occupy the houses now uninhabited ; there being no manu- 

 facturing town so pleasantly situated, nor any equal to it for salubrity 

 and cleanliness, with its beautiful park and delightful scenery. It 

 would appear that the time for following what the Quaker lady 

 recommended has now arrived ; for one of the London daily journals 

 in its leading article of Saturday last informs the Spitalfields weavers 

 that although " they are sober, industrious, skillful, patient under 

 suft'ering like their God-fearing Huguenot ancestors, yet their virtues 

 will be of no avail against the inexorable change which has subjected 

 their industry to foreign rivals." This is a serious announcement, 

 and explodes the delusion which some sincere friends have hitherto 

 entertained even in our town, that the struggle was transient, and 

 that ultimately the trade would survive the " temporary derange- 

 ment." The writer of the article then urges the Spitalfields weavers 

 " to give up their forlorn trade, to leave their wretched garrets, in 

 which they are verging on starvation, in clothing not far removed 

 from nakedness, enduring a misery ever present, and a hopeless 

 future, with nothing but the workhouse, though hateful, as the last 

 res(jurce ; and recommends them not to cling to Spitalfields ; but to 

 go down to Lanchshire, which wants hands in all its teeming hives, 



