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PARLIAMENT: CALICO PRINTERS. Minutes of the Evidence [complete with: Report] taken before the Committee to whom the petition of the several Journeymen Calico Printers and others Working in that Trade… was Referred., 19; 8pp folio, fine copy in early buckram, [London, Parliament], 1804. [The Report dwelt specially on the fact that the legislation of the last years for the working-classes "had operated only in favour of the strong and against the weak." "Everything," it says, "is made subservient to the interest of the masters, and exclusively too; for the diminution of expense, considerable as it is, the manufacture arising out of their multiplication of apprentices at reduced wages, and the introduction of machinery, do not appear to have produced any reduction whatever in the price of the fabric to the consumer."] Bound with: PARLIAMENT: COTTON MANUFACTURERS: Report from the Committee on Petitions of several Cotton Manufacturers and Journeymen Cotton Weavers, &c., together with the Minutes of Evidence take before the Committee, 38; 18pp., folio, [London, Parliament], 1808. Bound with: PARLIAMENT: FRAMEWORK-KNITTERS: Report [with Minutes of Evidence and Second Report and Third Report of 1819] from the Committee on the Framework-Knitters Petitions, 102; 52pp., folio, [London, Parliament], 1812 [- 1819].Bound with: PARLIAMENT: COTTON GOODS: Report from the Select Committee on the Duties payable on Printed Cotton Goods, &c., 50pp., folio, fine copy in early buckram, [London, Parliament], 1818. Bound with: PARLIAMENT: LINEN TRADE OF IRELAND: Report [with Minutes of Evidence and Second Report [with Minutes of Evidence] of 1825] from the Select Committee on the Laws which Regulate the Linen Trade of Ireland, 134; 10; 209pp., folio, [London, Parliament], 1822 [- 1825]. Linen manufacture had already existed for thousands of years in Ireland prior to the industrial revolution and the manufacture of linen cloth was a cottage industry. Peasant farmers grew flax and their wives and daughters spun it before selling it on to merchants and traders. Western Europe including the British Isles became a leading manufacturer. Thousands of French Huguenots skilled in the manufacture of linen took refuge in the British Isles from religious persecution on the continent. The Huguenot families were offered land during the plantation of Ulster in the 17th century and were influential in the expansion of the Irish linen industry over the following centuries. At its height the linen industry employed tens of thousands though conditions in mills and factories were often appalling for the workers including young children. Tens of thousands more were also indirectly employed and dependent on the industry.
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