| Description | (Dated Wednesday noon. Redirected to Messrs. Butler & Co., Kirkstall Forge, near Leeds.)
Dear Friend,
I wrote a few lines to you yesterday saying Mr. Glover had been with me, and I believe I did not mention that Mr. Alexander Walker had very possitively said that he would neither go to London or write his name to any representation of the effects that a tax upon pig iron would have upon iron wares exported.
Soon after writing to you Mr. Dearman called of me and said he had been wrote to as a member of the committee appointed by the iron masters at Stourbridge, desiring he would obtain from the exporters of iron wares at this place their opinions upon the effects of the proposed tax and that the same might be sent to him with their signatures; that he had been with Mr. Capper and Mr. Alexander Walker and that the latter had refered him to some particulars which he had delivered to me; but as I had received them under a solemn charge not to bring Mr. Walker's name into question, I declined producing them, and said I reccollected that I had wrote the tenor of them to you.
I observed to him that tho' the object was of importance to iron masters, it might possibly be made agreeable to them, but that it would inevitably produce extreme distress to thousands of poor workmen.
He saw that I considered the iron masters not the proper persons to take the sole lead as they had done, and that we had much to fear from a numerous race of sturdy people wanting work and bread, from whatever cause it might arise.
The measure is certainly in many respects a desperate one, and if the tax should be established I have no doubt tumults will be the consequence.
God bless you. I am ever gratefully and affectionately yours,
Samuel Garbett |