Wednesday, May 26, 1813.

A Petition of several merchants, spinners, and manufacturers of cotton, in the town of Stockport and its vicinity, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That the Petitioners give employment to many thousands of hands in spinning, weaving, and other processes of the cotton manufacture; and that the price of cotton wool has advanced, in the last six months, full 50 per cent. which has pressed heavily upon the trade of the petitioners, and has hitherto prevented them, in a great measure, from benefiting by the late happy change in the state of the continent of Europe; a necessary consequence of this is, that they are thereby deprived of the means of increasing, in any material degree, the wages of their workmen, some classes of whom, particularly the weavers, are still most inadequately paid for their labour; and that, for some years past, the wages of that very numerous, useful, and ingenious class, have averaged less by far than those of the lowest species of day-labour, which has reduced them to such straits, that it is not to be wondered at if some of them should at last have listened to the evil-disposed and designing, and, impelled by want, joined in those disorders, the memory of which is still too recent to require being here enlarged upon; and that, thus situated, and with the recollection of these scenes fresh on their; minds, the petitioners have heard, with equal astonishment and alarm, that petitions have been presented to the House, praying that the importation of cotton wool from the United States of North America may be prohibited, or that such regulations or restrictions may be adopted in regard to it, as may nearly amount to a prohibition; and that, should it be found necssary or expedient, in the vigorous prosecution of the war against those states, so to blockade their ports as to prevent all intercourse between America and the rest of the world, the petitioners, although they would suffer more by this measure than perhaps any other class of their fellow subjects, would bear the consequent privations without complaint; but a partial measure which, to enrich a few individuals, shall exclude the produce of America from this country alone, and thereby throw the most valuable portion of the raw material into the hands of its continental rivals in the manufacture, they do most earnestly deprecate for themselves, and for the thousands who depend upon them for employment and for bread; and that the existing duties upon the importation of cotton wool into this country, no part of which is drawn back upon the exportation of the manufactured article, operate as a direct and powerful encouragement to the foreign spinner and manufacturer, and both at home and abroad give an undue advantage to linen and other fabrics that come in competition with those of cotton; it appears, therefore, to the petitioners, that instead of increasing the burthens affecting a raw material, of so much importance to the national industry, it were a more wise, liberal, and enlightened policy to lessen, or repeal altogether, the existing duties on cotton wool, the produce of our own colonies or those of our allies, convinced as they are that any defalcation of revenue that would thence arise, in the first instance, would ultimately be amply compensated by the increase it would directly or indirectly occasion in various other branches; and praying, that the House will not sanction any measures intended to lessen the supply, or enhance the price of the indispensable article of cotton wool, but rather adopt such as may have a directly contrary tendency, thereby securing the pre-eminence it now holds in that most important branch of trade to the nation at large, and prosperity and tranquillity to those populous districts, the seat of the manufacture."

Ordered to lie upon the table.