The Express.
London, England, 1863-06-15 00:00:00

TEE DISTRESS IN LANCASPIRE.

peon coos !MIMI. conzarosnarr.)
MANCHNITIIII, Josslo.
I procead to the execution of my monthly task-
-Iho extraction, namely, from Mr. Maclure's volu-
=Mous report of such facts and figures as may
sullies to bring vividly before your readers' eyes the
Latest statistics of labour and relief in the manufac.
taring districts. In consideration of the crowded
stave of your columns, I will make my statement as

brief as poesible.
Five weeks have elapsed since the last report
chronicled the state of our affairs on the 25th of
_ .

ApriL At that date two local relief committees
bad found it possible to suspend their operations--
a number now increased to 19—in which (though
most of them have charge only of small districts) it
is calculated that at least 5,000 operatives have
returned to full work. From the fact that the area
over which the jurisdiction of the central committee
extends is thus temporarily lessened, the total

number of operatives- embraced in this return is
only 525,948, or 10,832 fewer than on the 25th of
April. But of these 206,978—being an increase of
13,431 on last month--are recorded as working full
time; %bile there is a decrease of 24,313 in the
number wholly out of work ; leaving as the number
still wholly unemployed 191,199. In this state-
ment, however, there is an element of fallacy,
which it may be well to point out in this place. It
takes no account of the number of persona who have
emigrated, or who have strayed to other districts
in search of work, or who may have found other
than factory work at home. For, practically, the
return is made up as follows. When the distress
began information was obtained at each mill
of the number of bands usually employed.
The number of hands actually employed is
still ascertained at regular intervals, and the diffe-
rence between the two is accepted as the sum of
those out of work. A more accurate record than
this could be obtained only by taking a fresh census
of every town and village ; and yet it is clear that
the ranks of the unemployed are thus swollen by
tacitly including in them all who may temporarily
or permanently have severed their connection with

the mill
Turning to the statistics of relief, we find, first,
that the diminution of pauperism still continues.
The recipients of parochial relief have fallen in the
Ave weeks referred to from 184,172 to 180,890 ; the
weekly expenditure, from 12,5751. to 10,8721. On
the 25th of April the relief committees had on
their books 114,857 persons, also aided by the
guardians; they now have only 93,124. They
also assisted at the former date 180,247

- -
sou-paupers, a number now reduced to 133,391.
The entire diminutiou—exclusive, be it remem-
bered, of the seventeen districts where relief has
been wholly discontinued during the month—is no
less than 68,389, or from 294,904 to 226,515. The
number of men in the adult schools is less by more
than a third, having fallen from 16,251 to 9,850 ;
while there is an increase of 1,138 in those who are
employed ta outdoor labour under the direction of
the committees. Of boys under 15 years of age, of
women and girls in the sewing schools, and of tittle
children whose school pence is paid by the com-
mittees, there is a similar falling off--namely, from
a total of 114,165 to 87,93/1. We meet with a like
result when we examine the statementa of expendi-
ture during the past month. The average
amount to which incomes are made up is again less
than before, having been lowered from in. lid. to
old. The total outlay of the committees during
the month of April was 89,3431., while in May it
was only 74,9001. If, as we have reason to suppose
—though we are nowhere informed of the fact—the
former sum is the expenditure of four, the latter
of five weeks, the improvement is more marked than
the sum of 14,4431.—the difference between the
two—shows upon the surface.
This general and substantial change for the
better is, of course, to be attributed to the re-
sumption of work which has taken place in different
parte of the district. Yet that persons at a distance
should not be misled by statement., true in the
general, but false in the particular, it is necessary
to mention, that this gleam of prosperity has
shone only upon certain branches of the cotton
manufacture, and that while for various reasons
many places are as badly off as ever they were,
others have benefited in undue proportion. ibis
will also explain the fact that so many committees
have been able to suspend their operation& Moat
of them were in charge of small rural districts, de-
pendent upon one or two mills, reduced to destitu-
tion if these be stopped, and at once restored to
comparative comfort, when they recommence work.
From a comparison of the returns for April and
May, I find that Ashton, Dnkinfield, Heywood, and
.Stockport have more hands uneruploped at the
latter than at the former date : 119 at Ash-
ton, 772 at Dukinfield, 122 at Heywood,
771 at Stockport. Glossop remains at one
melancholy level ; having in each month 5,900 out of
7,068 operatives entirely out of work. Wigan,
which, in April, had 9,310 unemployed, out of a
total of 9,910, has now given work to just 100 more.
Manchester has decreased its roll of nearly 12,000
idle hands by about 500 ; Salford has sent to work
400 out of 6,200. Stalybridge, Bolton, Bury, and
Hyde remain in substantially the same state. But
when we come to Blackburn we find a diminution
from 12,698 to 9,849 ; to Burnley, from 3,782 to
2,877 ; to Chorley, from 1,882 to 1,437 ; to Ramp,
from 4,244 to 3,606 ; to Rawtenstall, from 2,963 to
2,117 ; to Todmorden, from 3,571 to 2,718 ; to Old-
ham, from 5,525 to 1,636. The last named fortu-
nate town has indeed only 1,636 operatives
unemployed out of a total of 24,680.
While the causes of this variation are nume-
rous and complex, any one at all acquainted with
manufacturing Lance/lire will at once see that the
places where coarser qualities of gouda are spun
and woven have now an advantage which at the
commencement of the distress was possessed by the
seats of the finer industry ; and that, generally
speaking, those places are best off whose experience
of low qualities of cotton is of older date than either
this year or last.
The question of out-doer labour for the unem-
ployed has made but little progress since I last
wrote. Nothing can more strongly show the diffi-
culties of the case than the fact that while the
central committee has in every possible way pressed
the matter upon the attention of the local boards,
the latter have during the past month been able to
increase the number of able-bodied men
working under their direction only from 5,483
to 6,621. Indeed, if we may trust the returns,
nothing of the kind has been accomplished in at
least one-third of the whole 170 districts : a result
which, if it be not accepted as a proof of the many
practical hindrances which surround the subject,
can be ascribed only to the inefficiency of the
committees. Messrs. Rawlinson and Farnall have
visited many towns and conferred with many public
bodies, everywhere finding much williugnees to
entertain their proposal, and a vivid perception of
the difficulties which will attend its realisation in
practice. Further con aideration has not less-
ened the sense of those difficulties, which I ex-
pressed in your columns a month ago ; but I
am anxious not to anticipate by adverse
criticism, a measure which even yet is not
fairly before the tribunal of public opinion. Mr.
Villiers's bill, permitting loans of money at low
rates of interest to municipalities and other public
bodies, for this purpose, is only now before the
House of Commons, and may not leave parliament
In the precise shape in which it has been introduced.
I therefore postpone any further discussion of its
provisions autil they are more authoritatively made
known, with this single expression of opinion, that
po measure will be complete which doe, not pro-
vide for the assistance of villages and semi-rural
districts, where no form of luual government has
yet been introdused.