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354 great emporium of commerce from which he came, the misery and destitution of the inhabitants generally were nearly as great as in the manufacturing towns. The state of one ward of Liverpool, perhaps the poorest, certainly would bear out that assertion. In the Vauxhall ward there were about 1,400 families last year; and out of that number four hundred had no employment at all, and four hundred more, on an average earned 14d. a week. His only object in coming there was a philanthropic motive of benefiting, if possible, a starving and unemployed population. The trades who were suffering most were those chiefly dependent on the poor, the shoemakers, tailors, and sempstresses. Their business was almost entirely gone, or their wages reduced to the lowest ebb. The poorer classes, from being unemployed, had no money to spend in even the most necessary articles of clothing. The Corn Laws operated most fatally on those trades which were not carried on by machinery. There was evidence of this even in London itself. A master shoe-manufacturer, residing in Southwark, who had employed from 100 to 200 hands per week, told him that in 1812 (before the Corn Laws) he paid his men from £2 10s. to £3 a week, and women from 17s. 6d. to 28s. a week; for the same work he now paid 12s. l0d. and 3s. 9d. Talk of machinery reducing the rate of wages indeed! What machinery was employed in making shirts and shoes? Or where was the steam power applied to the manufacture of trousers and waistcoats? Had wages fallen in any of the manufacturing districts equal to that?

Sir R. Peel (interrupting him) inquired whether the trade of Liverpool had fallen off?

Mr. Heyworth said there was a host of shipping unchartered, and likely to continue so, in the docks.

Sir R. Peel: Has the value of the exports from Liverpool fallen off.

Mr. Heyworth said that it must be evident from what he