Petition of the Manufacturing Hosiers of the Town and County of Nottingham

v1:1701

A Petition of the Manufacturing Hosiers of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, was presented to the House, and read, renewing their application to the House, from a deep sense of the importance of the facts contained in their former Petition, from a perfect knowledge of their truth; and apprehensive of the unhappy influence which an intervening Petition from the other inhabitants of the said Town, entituled "A Petition of the Aldermen, Sheriff, principal Manufacturers, and Inhabitants thereof," may have upon the deliberations of Parliament at this important juncture; and knowing of no greater crime to their country, than to approach their Representatives with falsehood, and thereby mislead the great Council of the Nation, the Petitioners beg leave to express their abhorrence of the unjust representation of the Manufacturers of this Town and neighbourhood, which men, styling themselves its Aldermen, principal Manufacturers, &c˙, have not been afraid to present to the House; and that the former Petitioners do constitute a very great majority of the real Manufacturers of this Town, and the present Petitioners are the Committee appointed by them to transact this business; the distress they represented in their former Petition as real, has already in some measure taken place, and they are persuaded must increase upon them every day, beyond their abilities to support, should the present cessation of the North American Trade continue; and the contrary representations of men ill capable of judging of their trade or its dependencies, has no foundation in truth, not one fifth of the signers of that Petition being Manufacturers, or any way concerned in the North American Trade; and it is to obviate the impression which such misrepresentations may have to second that relief which the House may be now meditating for their distress, and to contribute by their particular experience to that perfect knowledge of the real state of the manufactory of this Town and neighbourhood, that the Petitioners earnestly entreat that they may be heard, in proof of the several allegations in this their present and former Petitions.

Ordered, That the said Petition be referred to the consideration of the Committee of the Whole House, to whom the Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, concerned in the Commerce of North America, is referred; and that these Petitioners be heard before the said Committee, upon their said Petitions, if they think fit.

Ordered, That Mr˙ Unwise, Junior, do attend the said Committee upon Wednesday morning next.