The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-11-04 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1862.

THE LANCASHIRE DISTRESS.

We regret to learn that, notwithstanding the
exertions that have been made throughout the
country, the meney collected by voluntary con-
tributions, added to the rates that have been
levied, are likely soon to be wholly inadequate
to meet the wants of the distressed operatives of
Lancashire and Cheshire. Seeing that the rates
in many of the unions in the distressed districts
have not exceeded 2s. or 2s: 6d. in the pound,
several persons have asked, ivhy do they not
levy a heavier rate? Our rates are much higher
than they have been yet called on to pay. Mr.
Cobden, at Rochdale last week, ably addressed
himself to that point in defending the cotton
manufacturers from not having done their duty
in the present emergency, Mr. Cobden illus-
trated the millowner by the following
comparison ;—" A millowner who spins
cotton is somewhat similar to a flour miller who
grinds wheat. Let us suppose a calamity had
occurred by which all the mills in the south of
England had to be shut up everywhere, and let
us suppose, in addition to this, that those mills
which were closed were liable to be rated to the
relief of the poor, and that the cottages, which
were, generally speaking, owned by the millers,
and in which the labourers lived, ceased to pay
rent when the workpeople ceased to receive
wages, and yet that both the cottages and the
mills continued to be rated to the relief of the
poor; suppose, simultaneously with such a crisis
as that, we had raised a cry that the corn
millers, whose trade was paralysed, ought, in
addition, to keep all the people who were out
of work. That would be just as reasonable as
the accusation of which many of us have heard
brought against the owners of mills in this
region." This is, no doubt, the einet position
of large numbers of the millowners at the pre-
sent time, But what about the distressed opera-
tives ? Mr. Farnell, the Commissioner, sent
down to the cotton districts by Government to
watch the progress of the distress, thus reports
on 24 of the unions in which the chief part of
the distress exists. In these unions there were
at this time last year some, 43,000 persons in
receipt of parochial relief. The number relieved
the week before last was 186,000, showing an in-
crease of 143,000—0 f these 26,000 were able-
bodied men. The total weekly cost last year was
£2,185, it is now £11,626, being an increase at
the rate of 431 per cent. It has all along been
a feature of the cotton distress, that the work-
men have not applied for relief, till every other
means of sustaining life has failed. Some had
small sums in the savings banks, and others had
co-operative stores, but these hoardings, one
by one, have been gradually used up, and the
operatives are now falling wholesale upon the
parochial funds. The number the week
before last relieved in the 24 unions was,
within a fraction of 10,000 more than were re-
lieved the week before, and a like additional
number was expected to be added to the list last
week. In seven consecutive weeks, 45,404
persons had become paupers on these unions,
giving a weekly averaged increase of 6,500. As
the private means of the operatives becomes
exhausted, misery deepens, and the numbers
falling on the unions increase. But even the
numbers we have given does not represent the
entire amount of the distress. Besides the
186,000 relieved by the guardians, there were
191,000 relieved by the local committees, not more
than one-third of whom had received relief from
thesuardians. By and by we may expect that the
whole of these will have to fall on the unions, so
that the guardians may be expected shortly to
find means for the support of 200,000 souls.
Where is the money to come from While
every week receives an addition of thousands of
fresh paupers, the sources whence the funds
should arise are becoming dried up. It is im-
possible for these hundreds of thousands to be
out of employ, without materially affecting every
branch of trade in the district. It is expected
that the loss of wages sustained by the opera-
tives this year will be from seven to ten
millions sterling, This money being now with-
drawn from the parties who pay the rates, how
are the additional parochial demands to be met?
It is not possible to reduce the demands by
lowering the relief, for that is low enough
already—the average allowance being only is. 4d.
per head per week. There is, therefore, every
reason to fear that the machinery of the guardians
will break down, and it must have broken down
long ere this had it not been aided by voluntary
contributions, distributed by fifty local com-
mittees. Should it break down, what then?
Either the public merit vastly increase their
voluntary contributions, or there muet be a
grant from the national Exchequer, as in the
case of the Irish famine. A government grant
is almost universally admitted to be undesirable,
but if the parochial and private funds will not
meet the increasing demands made upon them,
there can be no other alternative. The people
cannot be permitted to die of starvation ; yet
diJease and death are beginning their work. A
hospital surgeon at Preston writes: "typhus of a
virulent kind hat shown itself, and that to an
extent only paralleled by the famine fever in
Ireland; and the probability is that the fever
will extend over the whole of the cotton district
unless aid is at once afforded to the famishing
people on a scale greater than that at present
seems even contemplated." Now these people
are not habitual paupers. They are suffering
troth causes in which they had no hand; and we
therefore, urge upon the public to contribute to
the voluntary relief fund—we ask those who
have already given to give again, so that the
local committees may be enabled to afford such
aid as will spare Ub the horrors which usually
attend a starving population.

DORCHESTER—PITCHED CORN MARKET.--
Saturday, November I.—The attendance was good,
and the tone of the trade firm. Wheat sold at an
advance of one shilling per quarter, and barley *rid
oats were very firm in price.
Tuts REPOSITORY SALE, Saturday, November I.
The supply of stock was large and of superior
quality, but trade was dull, and late prices were
barely supported. .

. . ,
M ON ICIPAL Ecacnow.—The election of four
councilmen to fill the vacancies occasioned by the
retirement in rotation from office of Messrs. George
James Andrews, John Eimer, Alfred Samuel Mason,
and George Knight Stanton, took place on Satur-
day. The three first-named gentlemen offered them.
selves for re-election. Mr. Stanton having intimated
his intention of not again accepting the honourable
office, Robert Rayne, Esq., of Fordington, wax

nominated by him in his steed. Very little interest
was manifested by the burgesses in the election, and
at the close of the poll the number of votes recorded
were as follows :—Mr. G. J. Andrews, 20; Mr.
John linsor, 20; Mr. A. S. Mason, 20 ; Mr. Robert
Idayne, 13; Mr. G. K. Stanton, 7. The last-named
gentleman, therefore, retires from office.