The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

OPERATIVE DISTRESS.

Ix appears from a return published that in Man-
chester, out of 233 mills, print-works, dyeworks,
machinists' shops, and foundaries, 73, with 10,801
operatives, only are in full employ, whilst 18,136
persons belonging to them are on short time, and
10,394 are totally unemployed. So far the return ;
but 10,394 persons destitute of employ, and 18,136
reduced to half a loaf, by no means gives the full
measure of distress existing in Manchester through
the present unfortunate depression of trade, arising
out of the monetary crisis. There are in addition
many thousands of fustian cutters and their families
—at all times only one remove from pauperism—and
hand-loom weavers, mostly working at home or for
small masters, whose shops are not included in this
return, entirely thrown out of employ.
In Rochdale there are 7,835 persons working short
time ; and in the district, 7,215 ; giving a total of
15,050, exclusive of 1,427 altogether unemployed.
Several mills that, up to last Monday, worked full
time are beginning this week to run four days only.
The machinists are suffering as much as other
branches of trade; for, in some cases, the hands
have bean reduced nearly one half, and those at
work are so for an average of three and a half days
only.
In the borough of Stockport (situate partly in
Cheshire and partly in Lancashire) there are about
49 mills and workshops, employing about 17,000
people, and of these 35 are either stopped or working
short time, and the pressure for relief at the work-
house has much increased.

At Oldham the majority of the largest factories in
the town, and the ironworks of Messrs. Platt and
Asa and Eli Lees, still continue running short time,
in addition to which large numbers of hands in the
latter establishments have been altogether sus-
pended; so that the working classes are beginning
to suffer severely. In Middleton and Tonge there is
also a great deal of Buttering amongst the operative
classes, particularly the silk-weavers, who constitute
the bulk of the population of these townships, in
consequence of the complete stagnation in the silk
trade.

At Ashton, Bury, Bacup, Burnley, Bolton, Black-
burn, Chorley, Accrington, Colne, Wigan
all places having large populations—in the same
county, the numbers thrown out of employment, of
only on half-work, and the distress bears full pro-
portion to that in Manchester.
At Leicester, Carlisle, Whitehaven, Glasgow, and
Hamilton distress is also rife among the operatives.
At Hamilton his Grace the Duke of Hamilton has
urged forward the most active measures of relief,
supplied the soup kitchens with bullocks, and sub -
scribed 501. to a fund to be raised by a relief com-
mittee.

LORD CLARENDON AND AFRICAN
EMIGRATION.
A DEPUTATION of the Anti Slavery Society waited
upon Lord Clarendon on Tuesday in order to call his
lordship's attention to the fatal effects of the new
French scheme for obtaining " free African labour "
for their West Indian possessions. The deputation,
on the authority of authentic reports from the west
coast, characterised the scheme av nothing less than
open slave-trading, and called upon Lord Clarendon
to use every effort to put a stop to so injurious a
measure.
The Earl of Clarendon is reported to have ex-
pressed the gratification it afforded him to receive so
large and influential a deputation :
Such a deputation was very encouraging to the Govern-
ment, which, he need scarcely observe, was in possession
of the fullest information on the subject of this " new
system " of obtaining labour : one be did not hesitate to
designate as the slave-trade, unmitigated and undisguised.
The whole question, however, had been submitted to the
consideration of the French Government, which he be-
lieved had not foreseen that the result of attempts to
obtain immigrants from Africa would be the revival of the
slave-trade ; and he felt quite sure nothing was further
from the wishes or the th)ughts of the Emperor of the
French than to reopen this execrated traffic in opposition
to the polby of the leading civilised powers, and to the
well-known national sentiment of this country. The evils
could scarcely be exaggerated that must arise from the
checking of the legitimate commerce which, in many
parts of the African coast, had totally superseded the trade
in slaves, and in others was rapidly extinguishing it. This
was a point which bore intimately on the commercial
interests of this country, and to the importance of which
the Government was fully alive. The deputation would
be encouraged to hear that the attempts of the French
agent to obtain immigrants had been so unsuccessful, he
(Lord Clarendon) thought ho might venture to say that,
even on this account, the speculation would be aban-
doned, at least for the present, and no effort should be
spared by the Government to prevent the renewal of a
traffic between which and the slave-trade there was no
appreciable difference. He assured the deputation of his
cordial sympathy with the objects of the Anti-Slavery
Society, and his concurrence in the sentiments set forth
in the memorial.