DISTRESS OF HAND-LOOM WEAVERS 797 
foreign workmen. What the commissioner said of weavers AD. 1776 
in general was specially true of the silk-weaver—“ The best ’ 
friends of the weaver are those who would advise and assist 
him to transfer his labour to other channels of industry.” 
iii. The cotton was the first industry in which power- The appli 
spinning was introduced ; there had been a real difficulty in joer J 
getting weavers in sufficient numbers to work the yarn that re 
was spun, and it was in this trade that the power-loom had 
been most generally applied at the time of the enquiry. 
The new mode of weaving had brought about an extra- 
ordinary expansion of the trade, and it was said that com- 
paratively few hand-looms had been put out of operation was 
altogether? At the same time part of the work that was aed the 
done by hand consisted of goods of a class for the making of 
which wages were so low that machinery did not pay. The Sheapnets 
competition of Irish immigrants was also severely felt in the work, 
West of Scotland cotton district’. Wages were exceedingly 
low, employment for hand-loom weavers was irregular, and in 
bad times practically ceased. 
There had been a great deal of distress among the 
Scottish weavers both in 1819 and 1826. Large relief funds 
were started, to which the upper classes contributed more 
largely than they would have done in England, where the 
Poor Law afforded so much relief’. But the most serious 
1 Reports, 1840, xx1v. 659. 
2 «Before passing from the case of cotton-weavers,” Mr Hickson writes: 
“I may express the surprise I felt at the discovery, that, notwithstanding the 
gigantic competition of the power-loom, the number of hand-looms employed in 
this branch of the trade of weaving is not only very considerable, but, from 
nniversal testimony, almost as great as at any former period. 
“After visiting the power-loom factory of Messrs J. and W. Sidebottom at 
Mottram, where, in one immense apartment, 125 yards in length by 25 yards in 
width, I saw 620 looms working by power, and producing, almost with the rapidity 
of light, as much cotton cloth, apparently, as would suffice for the consumption of 
the whole country, I was struck with the fact as extraordinary, not that the 
labour of the cotton-weaver at the hand-loom should be ill remunerated, but that 
his employment should not have been altogether superseded. It would seem, 
however, that the power-loom had created for itself a market almost sufficient to 
carry off its own productions, leaving the demand for hand-loom cotton cloth 
nearly as great as before.” Reports, 1840, xxIv. 650. 
8 Among these may be specified blue and white stripes and checks for export 
trade. Accounts and Papers, 1839, xri1. 535. 
t Reports, etc., 1840, xx1v. 644; Accounts and Papers, 1839, xL11. 538, 559. 
5 Accounts and Pavers, 1839. x11. 528.