As Boulton had anticipated, the Ministry introduced several important measures, calculated to have a highly injurious effect upon English industry, and he immediately bestirred himself, in conjunction with Josiah Wedgwood, of Etruria, to organise a movement in opposition to them. Wedgwood and Boulton met at Birmingham in February, 1785, and arranged to assemble a meeting of delegates from the manufacturing districts, who were to meet and sit in London “all the time the Irish commercial affairs were pending.” A printed statement of the objects of the movement was circulated, and Boulton and Wedgwood wrote to their friends in all quarters to meet and appoint delegates to the central committee in London. Boulton was unanimously appointed the delegate for Birmingham, and he proceeded to London furnished with a bundle of petitions from his neighbourhood. The delegates proceeded to form themselves into a Chamber of Manufacturers, over the deliberations of which Wedgwood, Boulton, or John Wilkinson usually presided.
The principal object of these meetings and petitionings was to prevent, if possible, the imposition of the proposed taxes on coal, iron, and raw materials generally, as well as the proposed export duties on manufactured articles. At a time when foreign governments were seeking to exclude English manufactures from their dominions by heavy import duties, it was felt that this double burden was more than English industry could bear. The Irish Parliament were at the same time legislating in a hostile spirit towards English commerce; imposing taxes upon all manufactures imported into Ireland from England, while Irish manufactures were not only sent into England duty free, but their own parliament encouraged them by a bounty on exportation. The committee strongly expostulated against the partial and unjust spirit of this legislation, and petitioned for free interchange on equal terms. So long as such a state of things continued, the petitioners urged that “every idea of reciprocity in the interchange of manufactures between Britain and Ireland was a mere mockery of words.”
Although Watt was naturally averse to taking any public part in politics, his services were enlisted in the cause, and he drew up for circulation “An answer to the Treasury Paper on the Iron Trade of England and Ireland.” The object of his statement was to show that the true way of encouraging manufactures in Ireland was, not by bounties, not by prohibitions, but by entire freedom of industry. It was asserted by the supporters of the propositions, that the natives of Ireland were ignorant, indolent, and poor. “If they be so,” said Watt, “the best method of giving them vigour is to have recourse to British manufacturers, possessed of capital, industry, and knowledge of trade.” The old covenanting spirit of his race fairly breaks out in the following passage:—
“It is contemptible nonsense to argue that because Ireland has never had iron manufactories she cannot soon have them.... One hundred years ago the Irish had no linen manufacture; they imported linen; and now they sell to us to the amount of a million annually. How came this about? The civil wars under Charles I., and the tyranny of the Scotch Privy Council under Charles II., chased the people out of Scotland, because they were Presbyterians. Ireland received and protected them; they peopled the northern provinces; many of them were weavers; they followed their business in Ireland, and taught others. Philip II. chased the inhabitants out of Flanders, on account of religion; Queen Elizabeth received and protected them; and England learnt to manufacture woollen cloth. The persecutions of Lewis XIV. occasioned the establishment of a colony in Spitalfields. And the Parliament of Britain, under the auspices of —— and ——, and others, imposed oppressive duties on glass; and ——’s Act gave the Irish liberty to export it to our Colonies; the glass-makers fled from the tyranny of the Excise; Ireland has now nine glass-houses. Britain has lost the export trade of that article! More examples of the migrations of manufactures could be adduced, but it seems unnecessary; for it cannot be denied that men will fly from tyranny to liberty, whether Philip’s Priests, Charles’s Dragoons, or our Excisemen be the instruments of the tyranny. And it must also be allowed that even the Inquisition itself is not more formidable than our Excise Laws (as far as property is concerned) to those who unhappily are subjected to them.”
Towards the end of the statement he asks, “Would it not be more manly and proper at once to invite the Irish to come into a perfect union with Britain, and to pay the same duties and excises that we do? Then every distinction of country might with justice be done away with, and they would have a fair claim to all the advantages which we enjoy.”
The result of the agitation was that most of the proposals to impose new taxes on the raw materials of manufacture were withdrawn by the Ministry, and the Irish resolutions were considerably modified. But the relations of British and Irish industry were by no means settled. The Irish Parliament might refuse to affirm the resolutions adopted by the British Parliament, in which case it might be necessary again to oppose the Ministerial measures; and to provide for this contingency, the delegates separated, with the resolution to maintain and extend their organisation in the manufacturing districts. Watt did not, however, like the idea of his partner becoming engrossed in political agitation, even in matters relating to commerce. He accordingly wrote to Boulton in London, “I find myself quite unequal to the various business now lying behind, and wish much you were at home, and that you would direct your attention solely to your own and to Boulton and Watt’s business until affairs can be brought into reasonable compass.”[268] Later he wrote,—“At Manchester they are busy making a collection for the Chamber of Manufacturers, which I fancy will be in vogue again next winter. But I hope that neither you nor I will be mad enough to be demagogues then. Let us leave that to those who can defy Ministers, and get our property secured, which may be done in the confusion.”
Watt was at this time distressed by an adverse decision against the firm in one of the Scotch courts. “I have generally observed,” he wrote, “that there is a tide in our affairs. We have had peace for some time, but now cross accidents have begun, and more are to be feared.” His anxieties were increased by the rumour which reached his ears from several quarters of a grand combination of opulent manufacturers to make use of every beneficial patent that had been taken out, and cut them down by scire facias, as they had already cut down Arkwright’s. It was said that subscriptions had been obtained by the association amounting to 50,000l. Watt was requested to join a counter combination of patentees to resist the threatened proceedings. To this, however, he objected, on the ground that the association of men to support one another in lawsuits was illegal, and would preclude the members from giving evidence in support of each other’s rights. “Besides,” said he, “the greater number of patentees are such as we could not associate with, and if we did it would do us more harm than good.”[269]
Towards the end of 1785 the engines which had been in hand were nearly finished, and work was getting slacker than usual at Soho. Though new orders gave Watt trouble, and occasioned him anxiety, still he would rather not be without them. “It will be well,” he wrote to his partner, “if we can get some orders now for engines worth while. What we have been doing lately has been very trifling, and if we don’t get orders soon, our men will be idle. As it happens at present, we have at least three engineers too few here, there being eight engines to be done in two or three months, and only three engineers.”[270] It was matter of gratification to Watt to be able to report that the engines last delivered had given great satisfaction. The mechanics were improving in skill, and their workmanship was becoming of a superior character. “Strood and Curtis’s engine,” said he, “has been at work some time, and does very well. Whitbread’s has also been tried, and performs exceedingly well.” The success of Whitbread’s engine was such that it had the honour of a visit from the King, who was greatly pleased with its performances. Not to be outdone, “Felix Calvert,” wrote Watt, “has bespoken one, which is to outdo Whitbread’s in magnificence.”
The slackness of work at Soho was not of long continuance. Orders for rotative engines came in gradually; one from Harris, of Nottingham; another from Macclesfield, to drive a silk-mill; a third from Edinburgh, for the purposes of a distillery; and others from different quarters. The influx of orders had the effect at the same time of filling Soho with work, and plunging Watt into his usual labyrinth of perplexity and distress. In September we find him writing to Boulton,—
“My health, is so bad that I do not think I can hold out much longer, at least as a man of business, and I wish to consolidate something before I give over.” ... Again, “I cannot help being dispirited, because I find my head fail me much, business an excessive burden to me, and little prospect of my speedy release from it. Were we both young and healthy, I should see no reason to despair, but very much the contrary. However, we must do the best we can, and hope for quiet in heaven when our weary bones are laid to rest.”[271]