The Case of the Weavers, Who are Petioners, to be relieved against a Clause in the coal ACT.  
THAT Peter du Cloux, 
24. November, 1688.  pretending himself to be the First Maker of Alamodes and Lustrings in England, did, with Clowdesly and Sherrard, procure a Patent for the sole making thereof, as a new Invention.  
The Patentees made no use of the Grant by the space of Three Years, 
1691.  until they sold the same to certain Merchants-Traders with France, and some Mercers who got themselves Incorporated in the Year 1691. by the Name of the Royal Lustring Company.  
In the Year 1694.( A Clause being inserted in the Act of Tonnage and Poundage, 
1694.  to hinder the Importation of French Goods, for encouraging our English Manufacturys) the Lustring Company, under the Umbrage of that Clause, caused several Quantities of Alamodes and Lustrings, made by others, to be Seized; which appearing to be made in England, were restored to the Owners, who sold the same without Interruption.  
In the Year 1695. the Lustring Company did writ a Letter to the Company of Weavers, which the Weavers Company answered as followeth.  
GENTLEMEN, Weavers Hall, Decemb. 5th. 1695  
THE Company of Weavers would have answered your Letter sooner, had not the extraordinary Business that attends all Companys, but especially this, at that season of the Year, prevented them.  
Therefore, in Answer to your, you may be pleased to understand, That the Company of Weavers do wish the Royal Lustring Company, all the good Success imaginable, in the making of Alamodes and Lustring, so far as the making thereof doth not interfere with, or abridge their Members of their ancient Rights and privileges, which this Company always had, and now have a tender Respest unto, and are, as much as in them lies, obliged to maintain and defend them in.  
As it is not obvious that the many Advantages you daily boast of to have procured to this Nation, are true, so on the other hand, some pretend they can prove your chiefest Advantage is by selling of ordinary Goods at a great price; which, if so, is too apparently a Prejudice to the public, as well as a Disgrace to the Manufacture, and that all the People employed by you they would employ( if not obstructed) with greater Advantage to the Nation, and to the particular Persons they would so employ.  
And altho the Company heretofore apprehended that the best way of carrying on that Manufacture, was by a joint Stock; and therefore, such of them as then acted, might give their own Consents thereto, and wish you good Success therein: Yet they never intended, by any Consent of theirs, to abridge any of their Members from making the same on their own Acoounts( and especially such as could prove( as many pretend to do) an anticedent Right( and that they had attained to the full Knowledge in the Art both of making and Lustring the same, many Years before the passing of your Patent) which is evident from the Clause the Company caused to be inserted in your Charter: And you well know, that they declared, at the passing thereof, they could not give away the Rights of their Members.  
'tis presumed you well remember you formerly acquainted the Company, That you had Arrested some of their Members, for making Alamodes and Lustrings contrary( as you pretended) to your Patent, upon which 'twas expected that a fair trial would have ensued, touching the Validity thereof, and thereby have put a Period to the Differences between yourselves and their Members; but your declining the same, have given their Members good Grounds to conclude your Patent was not obtained on such true and valid Reasons as were able to abide the Decision of a Court of Judicature, and there, for support thereof, you were induced( with the like Allegations you formerly used) to apply yourselves in that private manner to the last Parliament, for an Act to debar their Members, from selling that, which you know neither your Patent nor Charter can hinder them from making.  
The Company are as willing as you that all Differences and Misunderstandings should be laid aside, and that the Manufacture may be encouraged and increased, but do not think it proper to lay their Hands to the Plow by being interested in your Companys Stock at any Value: But as to their particular Members, they may act therein as they think fit.  
gentlemen,  
The Company cannot let this opportunity slip, without putting you in mind how contrary you act against your Charter, not only by preventing our Members from making Alamodes and Lustrings, but also, by your hitherto employing chiefly such as are not Members of their Company. And since by your late Advertisement in the Gazett you would seem to reform in the latter; yet they could hearty wish( for your own Credits) you had performed what thereby you declared you would do, and not have given( as they too much fear you have done) not only such cause of Complaint, in this particular, as is daily made against you, but also much suspicion that you never intended any more thereby, other than to give an Umbrage to some unreasonable Application for your own Advantages, tho to the prejudice of the public.  
If therefore you would sincerely manifest yourselves to be for the real Benefit and Advantage of the Nation, and desire that all Differences between the Members of the Company and yourselves may amicably be Composed; 'tis the Opinion of this Company, you can make no better Demonstration thereof than by pursuing the true Intention of your Charter, in permitting the Members of this Company quietly to make and dispose of this Manufacture without any interruption; and by taking such effectual Care that you employ none, for the time to come, but such only as are Members of this Company. By which you will obtain the good Will of the whole Nation, and among them, particularly of Gentlemen, you most humble Servants.  
Case Shewell, Clerk to the Worshipful Company of Weavers, land.  
The Weavers had reason to writ as aforesaid, for that Silks for Hoods and Scarves were made time out of mind in England, which are of the same make and sort of Alamodes and Lustrings as now pass by that Name: And several Weavers made such to a great Degree of Perfection, before Letters Patents for the sole making thereof, as a new Invention, were procured: And by Magna Charta, no Freeman is to be devested of his Freehold, by any ptetending a Right thereto, without legal trial and Condemnation, and every Branch of Mans Trade is his Freehold, and none by force of the statute of Monopolys 21 Jacob. I. Cap. 23. can pretend a Right to the sole making or selling of any thing that any other could make or do before the Pretender to it. And the Petitioners being able to prove that several Weavers made Alamodes and Lustrings in England long before, and at the time of the Patent, were and are still ready to try the Validity thereof: And further, the Petitioners can prove, That the Patentees, as well as the Petitioners, gave over making such Goods in England, by reason the Markets here were over stocked, until Trade with France was prohibited. And after a Prohibition, the Petitioners did fall to work briskly, and not any have discontinued but out of Fear to be ruined by the Lustring Company; who making use of a Clause inserted in the coal Act, for hindering the Importation of French Goods, would hinder above Ten Thousand free Master Weavers to make Alamodes and Lustrings, and consequently would hinder above a Hundred Thousand Persons to Work; for the Master Weavers, their Journey Men, Servants, Apprentices, and others they employ and depend on them, are so many at least in number.  
If all Weavers in England be at Liberty to Work, they and the Lustring Companys Journeymen Weavers, will supply England with Alamodes and Lustrings; and destroy the Trade of lions; which the Lustring Company alone cannot do, for none of the Lustring Company are Weavers; but Captain Le Keux, and Mr. John Blondell, and the Petitioners, are not for hindering the Lustring Company to Trade.  
Therefore the Petioners hope the Lustring Company shall in no wise be suffered to hinder them to work and buy Silks where they can have the same best and cheapest: Well knowing London affords Merchants enough that Trades to Italy, who will supply the English Weavers plentifully.  
As for Smugling, that's Merchants and Traders Business, and not the Business of Workers and Makers of Goods in England; therefore all Weavers, not in Confederacy with the Lustring Company, propose and have invented a Mark to be woven in the Piece, to be cut off so indented, while the Piece is in the Loom, and before it be cut off from the Warp, that it cannot be counterfeited by any Smugler; as will be demonstrated to this Honourable House.  
And by reason the Lustring Company represented the Petitioners to be headed by, 
28 Janu. 1965.  or with French Faction: And that the Majority of Weavers was for the Lustring Company, the Petitioners desired a Common Hall to be called, to try whether it was so or not, and One Hundred and Fifty English Weavers appeared for the Petitioners, against only Five for the Lustring Company, which plainly shewed that the Lustring Company and their Journeymen Weavers, who are but few in Number, would oppress many Master Weavers, their Journeymen, Servants, and Apprentices, &c. Whose Number is very great.  
Therefore Your Petitioners hope to be Relieved by this Honourable House against the Clause in the coal Act, &c.