The Express.
London, England, 1863-01-15 00:00:00

THE condition of Lancashire appears to be •
standing difficulty to at least -one of our contem-
poraries. Not that it is owned as a difficulty, or
spoken of with hesitating voice. Every ex-
pression of opinion is loud even to annoy-
ance, confident to the point of dogmatism :
the misfortune is that infallibility cannot
always contrive to be in agreement with itself.
Every great and social problem, like that
which is now being solved in the North, is to
some extent hard to understand ; and no
wise man would wish to prophesy the events
of air months to come. But the kind of
difficulty is that which induces care in the forma-
tion and caution in the publication of opinion ;
which leads an observer, if be alters his views at
all, to alter them slowly and by degrees. 'T,he
rapidity with which the Times blows hot and cold
by turns, from every quarter of the compass, can-
not be 'scribed to such a cause as this. Only a
week ago we were told, on the authority of Dr.
Bucnaxalr's report, that the Lancashire work-
people were under-fed to the verge of disease, that
fever in its deadliest form was already epidemic,
and that an immediate rise in the rate of relief
was demanded of us by the most obvious policy of
self-preservation. Now it appears that 25 per
cent. of cases relieved are oases of imposture ;
that an intelligent correspondent, walking
through the streets of Manchester, sees a fat and
contented population ; that the gallery of the
theatre is crowded ; and that the distressed opera-
tives (including the sailors of Liverpool, and every
ploughman in the county) have, during the past
half-year, consumed 2i pints of spirits per bead.
Which statement are we to believe t Which
picture is the accurate photograph—the pale,
haggard, spectral forms, almost inviting the
stroke of pestilence, or the rosy faces of those
who are fattening on fraud, and spending relief in
gin and the pantomime? Perhaps if the Times, in
dealing with Lancashire distress, could succeed in
putting aside for a while every political or social
arriire pen:lie—could condone the offences of the
Manchester school, and forget what particular
manufacturing interest it is that now suffers,
it might, from the abundant evidence within its
reach, arrive at conclusions, if not more accurate,
at least more creditable to its own power of con-
sistent judgment. The actual administrators of
relief, upon whom, in the last resort, the responsi-
bility must rest, might then be in part freed from
the addition to their other difficulties of a perplexed
and vacillating public opinion, to which at present
they can look for neither guidance nor support.
But a more genuine uncertainty than that which
finds a voice in the columns of our contemporary
seems to be gaining ground throughout the country.
The progress of consumption has at last forced up
the price of goods, compared with that of cotton,
to such • degree as to cause a revival of trade, and
a consequent resumption of manufacture. At the
same time Mr. FARN•Tz announces a diminution of
pauperism so gradual, and still so steady, as to be
plainly attributable to no other cause than a partial
return to work. Measured by the amount of
pauperism, the distress touched its lowest point in
the week ending December 6, when 271,983 per-
sons were receiving out-door relief in twenty-seven
unions. Since that time • gradual decrease in the
number of paupers has taken place, amounting in
the whole to 18,847 ; and the local relief com-
mittees report a corresponding diminution of their
Pensioners. The Manchester Central Board holds
a large and constantly increasing balance, sufficient
for the necessities of the district during the next
four months, even on the supposition that the in-
creased activity of manufacture is not maintained.
And the question which people were beginning
everywhere to whisper one to another has now
been audibly put by the Dublin Collecting Com-
mittee—Ought more money to be subscribed
now, or • further effort be reserved for the time,
should it unhappily come, of again darkening
distress ?

This question is essentially one which every
donor or collector of money must answer for him-
self ; our function is performed when we have
placed before the public all the facts of the cam,
and indicated their weight and bearing in the
controversy. First, let not the diminution in the
amount of pauperism be taken at more than its
true value. Eighteen thousand, a large number
in itself, becomes small when it is compared with
the quarter of a million who still remain upon the
parish books, especially when we set against the
253,146 now being relieved the 65,406 who alone
were dependent upon the same help in the corre-
sponding week of last year. For all practical pur-
pose; the evil is yet undiminished; the demand upon
the committees of distribution stall unalackened ;
a ray of hope has fallen upon the dark places of
the North, and that is all. How long the mills
can be kept at work even to the present modi-
fied extent, it is impossible to say. The markets
both of Manchester and Liverpool are characterised
by a feverish uncertainty, than which nothing can
be more unlike the healthy energy of prosperous
times. But the important fact, to which
no temporary excitement of hope should
blind tia, is, that except in the im-
probable event of peace in America, we have
no prospect of more cotton in 1863 than will
suffice for three days' work. Here is the necessary
limit of production. One firm may succeed in
running its mills for something like full time ;
fluctuations of demand may induce the whole trade
to anticipate in one week the supply of two ;
but all such excess will be compensated by corm-1