;38 LAISSEZ FAIRE 
A.D. 1776 
—1850. 
with the 
result of 
throwing 
the cotton. 
weavers on 
the rates 
in Lanca- 
hare. 
nfluenced by the exponents of the principles of Political 
Economy, who overvalued the reliability of the laussez faire 
doctrines on which they laid such stress; and the wage clauses 
of the Statute of Artificers were repealed in 1813: The 
manufacturing population had always been liable to come on 
the rates in periods of bad trade? and the determination of 
the legislature had the effect of habituating the cotton- 
weavers to allowances in addition to wages? It is im- 
portant to observe, that in this agitation the weavers were 
maintaining a strictly conservative attitude; they asked to 
have the law of the land put in execution, and they could 
not but be deeply incensed at the line taken, both by the 
legislature and by the magistrates who were charged with 
the administration of the law. 
The Scotch The cotton weavers in Scotland fared even worse. They 
weavers, . . cg. . . 
phen Were anxious to obtain an authoritative list of prices, and at 
attempiing Yast, after long and very costly proceedings in the Court of 
fetes . . vo Ll. 
os Session, they did procure the authoritative recognition of 
certain rates as legal. So soon, however, as they endeavoured 
to enforce it, they found that the magistrates would not 
L 53 Geo. III. c. 40. 
? See above, pp. 50, 562 n. 4, 571, 577, and 656 below. 
5 Mr Henderson's report in 1833 is very instructive, and shows that the moral 
sffects were not so disastrous as in the agricultural districts. “The depression of 
wages, and the difficulty of finding employment, especially for the older weavers, 
whose habits were fixed, has led to a general practice in the weaving district of 
naking an allowance to able-bodied weavers, with more than two children under 
L0 years of age. There is no fixed scale for this allowance, but the practice is to 
make up the earnings of the family to 2s., or in some places, to 1s. 6d. a head. 
This course certainly is an approximation to the payment of wages out of the poor 
rate; but there are some material distinctions between the case of the weaver and 
the case of the agricultural labourer. The agricultural roundsman has no spur to 
exertion, nor interest to please the farmer, who is his master only for the day, 
consequently his habit of industry is relaxed and destroyed ; on the other hand, as 
she weaver always works by the piece, and the current rate of wages is well- 
snown, it is easy to calculate what he might earn if industrious, and the parish 
allowance is apportioned accordingly; so that, if he is indolent, he suffers for it ; 
if he is industrious, he reaps the benefit of his exertions; and the fact unquestion- 
ably is, that the weavers are stimulated beyond their powers under the allowance 
system.” Reports, 1834, xxvim. 913. The progress of the power-loom compelled 
‘nereasing numbers to rely on the allowance system. It had been unknown in 
Oldham in 1824 (Reports, 1824, v1. 405), but in 1833, the members of the select 
vestry, who were very careful in administering relief, found that * after providing 
‘or the aged, sick, widows with families and other usual dependents on parochial 
aid, the hand-loom weavers require the principal attention.” No permanent relief 
was afforded to any able-bodied men except weavers. Reports, 1834, xxvir. 921.