From The Times, 01 Jun 1819, posted with permission of the transcriber, Petra Michinson. Geo. THE CARLISLE WEAVERS (2). ----------------- (From the Carlisle Journal of Saturday.) The weavers of Carlisle and its neighbourhood have been in a state of very natural excitement, though not the slightest symptom of turbulence has occurred; but the Magistrates have deemed it necessary to keep the military in readiness. Several hand-bills have been distributed by the poor distressed and industrious, though harshly calumniated creatures, respecting their case, of which we make the following selection, as giving a tolerably faint, and scarcely that, idea of the misery to which man, so calling himself, can submit: - "AN APPEAL TO PUBLIC FEELING. "The Journeymen Weavers of Carlisle and neighbourhood beg to call the attention of the public to the following simple truths: - We are now arrived at a pitch of wretchedness and misery, such, we sincerely believe, as never existed in any country in time of profound peace, except visited by a natural famine. We are a powerful people, and yet we want strength. We are an industrious people, and yet we want bread; whatever the cause may be, we will not at this moment pretend to determine, but the effects are dreadful to be contemplated, and still more horrible to experience. Only for a moment let any rational and reasonable being amongst you lay it to his own heart, and there, at the tribunal of that principle that dictates between right and wrong, imagine us, if he can, labouring in a place peculiarly unwholesome from its closeness and damps, where the air is impregnated with noxious matter, so that what we inhale is little better than a fetid gas; which, though inseparable from the nature of the work itself, is nevertheless a particular aggravation of our misery, and all this for the reward of 1s. a day, and fed chiefly on potatoes, the proper food only for hogs; yet our miserable, half-famished children wait with anxious desire for their scanty morsel of those provisions; and the fond mother, the last of all to complain, summoning all her resolution together to hide the poignancy of her grief from her already disconsolate partner; her child, perhaps, at her breast, feebly sucking that nourishment that nature almost refuses to bestow: if this be not the very climax of human misery, tell us in what does human misery consist? - Wives and children heart-broken and in rags, and plunged altogether in helpless, almost hopeless, and to all appearance quite irremediable ruin, we have only one gleam of hope left us, which is, that the Legislature will take our distresses into consideration - we having petitioned our Prince and the Parliament to have us conveyed to Canada, or some of the Northern colonies [the petitions were each signed by nearly a thousand persons], that our families may yet hope to survive the wreck of misery that we are now involved in, and is apparently still getting nearer the final goal of destruction, for we are fully convinced that trade is near its consummation; that a severe winter, or a failing harvest, would introduce a fever that would not be easily eradicated. We are likewise convinced that the public in general know, that every principle of philosophy, justice, and sound policy, imperiously demands that the poor be protected; since the immutable and irreversible laws of nature have so blended the fate of all classes of society together, that whatever makes against the poor must, in the end, prove the destruction of the great. In our present unparalleled distresses, it is not too much to demand, with a voice of thunder, the adoption of a system of economy, and the stripping the undeserving of their ill-merited pensions. We have no peculiar affection for one denomination of public men more than another. Both Whigs and Tories have, in their turn, cajoled the people, and profited by their credulity; but experience has opened the eyes of the public mind to principles rather than to men; and we swear upon the altar of the Constitution - by the bravery of our forefathers, and by the blood shed by them in asserting the immutable rights of human nature, that we are their legitimate sons, and that our conduct shall never belie their ancient fame!" They had, yesterday, upon the Sands, a general meeting, including deputations from the towns of Wigton, Brampton, Longtown, Penrith, and all the intermediate villages, to the amount of about 1,700 in number; but we do not understand that any thing definitive is settled upon. Their procession through the city, in regular files, their mournful silence, and the laurel boughs that many of them carried in token of their peaceable intentions, whilst it gave the lie practical to the professed object of the Pitt club members, gave a melancholy interest to the scene, that could not be resisted by hearts participating in the feelings of our common nature. We trust an amicable arrangement will take place; for we know that the principal manufacturers are anxious to ameliorate the condition of their workmen; but this must be a work of co-operation. Hitherto all mutual understandings amongst the master-manufacturers have been as ropes of sand; but they must now be convinced that, in this respect, the maxims of trade have other foundations than the maxims of religion, and that, as it regards the former, a community of faith is necessary for the general interest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~