The Express.
London, England, 1863-03-19 00:00:00

[Stamped, ld. Additional.]

!CASHIRX DS=UI3.

Mal 00i 10.410I4L0bilblikeene).
• ILAXCHOVIEB, Maim 16-
'ffiori the* the transports of loyal enthusiasm
hive somewhat subsided, it may be,permitted to
'nfe briefly to recall attention to the condition of
tie manufacturing districts. I bare unfortunately
nothing new to report. Chimneys are still smoke-
less, and relief committees are yet engaged is
performing a task which every day grows more
difficult and more ungisiefuL If, as I fancy has
been the NON the public have been rafting content
under some vague impresidos that things down in
the North were a little better, and likely to become
better still, that impression must have been
dissipated by the validation of the monthly
report of the Manchester Central Committee, which
Metal= an elaborate statement of the condition of
the district during the week ending February 28—
a statement all the more valuable from the existence
of a similar one for the last week in January. As
this report was issued at the very moment when the
marriage excitement was at its height, it will pro-1
belly be of me to recapitulate now its principal'
biota, comparing them as I premed with the iita-
listics of a month ago.
The present report is from 162 districts, adminie,
tared by as many relief committees ; tbe Mamba
included in the last was 152. The ten new dis-
tricts comprise about as many thousand operatives.
The whole number of workpeople included in these
returns is 547,563, as against 536,723 in January.
Qf these 141,587 are working full time, 166,226
'various periods of short time, while 239,761 are
wholly out of work. Comparing these with the
.eirrespentling figures for last month, it follows that
the number of those in full work has decreased by
A 965, while those on short time have increased by
6,036, snd 00/14; out of work by 10,759. During
the same period the estimated loss of wages has
advanced from 172,7331. to 185,7331.
The statistics of relief do not at first sight seem
to accord with the statistics of employment. The
number of person; receiving out-door relief from 28
boards of guardians has decreased from 221,045 to
206,965 ; and the correeponding cost from 15,6121.
to 14,4291. A large Part of this decrease mrsy,no
doubt be accounted for by the unusual mildness of
the season, which permits a camsiderable
class of out-door labourers, whose improve
dent habits make them - habitual paupers is
the winter, to resume their ordinary work. The
fact, too, which I shall presently state, that ,the

least diminution occurs in, that most respectable
Maas of sufferers who are not recipients of parish
relief at all, but prefer to depend wholly upon the
committees, prompts the suspicion that boards of
guardians have relieved themselves at the expense'
of the latter bodies. The natural sourse of events,
' and that which I have no doubt they have actually
followed, would be for the pensioners of the rons-
mittses only to exert themselves in finding work,
and for their places to be filled up by others, who
are only too glad to exchange pariah pay for the
more liberal treatment of the voluntary organiza-
tions. Thus we find that the number of persons
relieved by both guardians and committees has
diminished by 16,850 ; namely, from 157,849 to
141,019 ; while the class dependent upon the
committees, and not receiving parochial relief, 'has
only fallen from 238,126 to 233,564, or by 4,562.
The number of men, women, and girls at work or
school under the direction of the committees has

increased from 84,695 to 95,760. The average
rate of income, including both earnings and relief,
remains the same, namely, 2s. 3d. per head. Yet
the total weekly expenditure has diminished froth
9,4781. to 28,7961.—+ fact which is to be accounted
for by the general suspension, at least for a time,
of issues of clothing. The balance in the hands of
the Central Committee will, we are told,
support this lessened outlay namely, of
about 120,0001. per month—for a little more
than three months. But it must be remembered
that the Lord Mayor skill has in his hands about

100,0001. ; while subeeriplions promised to the

. _
local committees, or *lnlay paid to them, are
.recorded as amounting to 128,4561. mom. On the
whole, if things remain as they are, we have funds
which will last for five months' more, or till the
end of July.

Although there are yet few symptoms of im-
provement, I think that we are fairly justified
in believing that our condition ia, for the present
at least, at ita worst. In my letter of the 2nd of
February I unwillingly prophesied an increased
stagnation of trade; and my prognostication has

turned out only too true. I now rely on the same
kind of evidence in predicting a revival, which must,
I believe, take place, although I dare not hope
that it ;will be more than transitory. Cotton
is accumulating in Liverpool, so that the stock there
at this market is as large in quantity, and far
greater in value, than that to which we are accus-
tomed in ordinary times. In the same way, as fac-
tory after factory ceases to work, while the
consumption of goods at home and abroad goes on
at the usual rate, demand must gradually come to
stand in a healthier relation to supply. Once for
all, let it be understood that what we want is not
merely cotton, but cotton at a reasonable price. If
every bale which is now rotting upon the American
plantations were stored in the warehouses by the
banks of the Mersey it would avail us nothing, if it
were kept, by speculation or otherwise, at a price
which left no margin for the cost of manu-
facture. Men dare not buy cotton when the
manufactured goods sell for, perhaps, only Id. •
pound more than the raw material. Fortunately
for us, neither panic nor speculation can have more
than a temporary effect upon the operation of the
law of supply and demand. When calicoes rise
above a certain price, they are superseded in public
I use by linens and stuffs : their world-wide accept-
&ace is based upon their cheapness. So, in the
long run, speculators will find that there is a price
(whether yet reached or not I do not pretend to
say) at which it is useless to hold cotton.

One word on a subject which more and more
occupies the public :mind, here and elsewhere
emigration. I cannot help fearing that the only
result of what has yet been done will
be blank disappointment. In the first place,
the sums voted for this pupate by colonial
legislatures are indigene/Ay small in comparison with
the magnitude of our misfortune. Some 20,0004
—and I believe that, strictly speaking, the amount
is not so great—will do Ivry little in belying
250,01:09 idle artisans. Then, egaln, it smirks to
forgotten that the colonies are giving this totwon-
ragenieut to emigration net in our interest but in
their own. This is natural enough, and in no way
a subject for blame. But the people they 'rental,'
to a large extent those whom we do DM wish Se