Yes; I was frequently obliged to resort to my master for information as to the dyeing and buying wool.
Does it not require great skill to dye according to pattern, even when you have bought wool?
Yes.
Were you also instructed in that?
Yes; I kept an account all the time I was apprentice of the principal part of the colours we dyed, and practised the dyeing: I always assisted in dyeing; I was not kept constantly to weaving and spinning; my master fitted me rather for a master than a journeyman.
And you instruct your apprentice in the same line?
Yes; we think it a scandal when an apprentice is loose if he is not fit for his business; we take pride in their being fit for their business, and we teach them all they will take.
[321] A clothier of Harmley, near Leeds, working with an apprentice, two hired journeymen and a boy, and giving some work out.
9. A Petition of Cotton Weavers [House of Commons Journals, 47 Geo. III, 1807, Feb. 26], 1807.
A petition of the several Journeymen Cotton Weavers resident in the counties of Lancaster, Chester, York, and Derby, was presented and read; setting forth, That the petitioners suffer great hardships by the reduction of their wages, and that whenever the demand for goods becomes slack, many master manufacturers adopt the expedient of reducing wages, thereby compelling the petitioners, in order to obtain a livelihood, to manufacture greater quantities of goods at a time when they are absolutely not wanted, and that great quantities of goods so manufactured are sacrificed in the market at low prices, to the manifest injury of the fair dealer, and the great oppression of the petitioners, who are reduced one half of the wages they are justly entitled to, and in many cases, are not able to earn more than nine shillings per week: And therefore praying, That leave may be given to bring in a bill to regulate, from time to time, the wages of the petitioners.