7/04 
Belegstellen. 
inadequate wages that they are paid for their work by manufacturers 
who employ them; and whereas it has become expedient to remedy the 
3ame, by adopting a regulation to determine from time to time the lowest 
rate of wages that shall be paid by any manufacturer to any handloom 
weaver employed in the manufacture of silk, woollen, cotton and linen; 
Be it therefore enacted, by and with the consent, etc., that from and 
after the passing of this Act, schedules shall be prepared by and under 
Ihe direction of His Majesty’s Government, and sent to the churchwarden, 
overseer, constable, writer or clerk, or to one of them, in every parish, 
township or vill, ete. in the United Kingdom where handloom weaving 
is given out to work, requiring a true return to be made, within 30 days 
after receipt of schedules, by every such churchwarden, etc. to whom 
such schedules shall have been directed, of the different‘ descriptions of 
manufacture carried on upon handlooms in such parish, etc., and of the 
name or designation by which such manufactured goods are there known 
and distinguished, and of the wages at which such work is given out, 
and is then and there paid for the same by the fewest number of manu- 
facturers and their agents, who individually and collectively put out to 
work and make, or are reputed to make, the greatest number of webs, 
cuts or pieces of the same sort individually, and one-half of such goods, 
webs, cuts or pieces collectively, which are then and there, and in any 
other place manufactured by such manufacturers on handlooms, from 
any of the aforesaid materials, and of whatever description. The infor- 
mation respecting the wages at which each sort of work is given out and 
paid to be collected and obtained from those manufacturers or their 
agents who individually and collectively, as aforesaid, make or are reputed 
to make one-half of the goods, webs, cuts or pieces, of the same descrip- 
tion which are then and there, or in any other township, manufactured 
by such manufacturers, or from the weavers in their employ, or from both 
the said parties; and both are hereby required to give a true statement 
of such wages in writing, signed by the person making it, when applied 
to by the person hereby authorized to demand the same, for the purpose 
of making the returns required by the schedules, That within 30 days 
after such returns have been made to His Majesty’s Government, or to 
those whom they may authorize to receive the same, the said authority 
shall ascertain, from the schedules or returns, the highest wages paid by 
such a number of manufacturers (where the number in any township, etc, 
exceeds two) as shall in the schedules of each description of manufacture 
constitute a majority of one or two, as the case may be, for each of the 
sorts of handloom manufacture designated or known by the same name 
or description, and given out to work as such in the parishes. town- 
ships, etc., respectively from whence the returns have been sent; and the 
average rate of wages paid by such majority of manufacturers so selected 
out of the returns from every parish, township, etc., respectively, shall,