The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-26 00:00:00

CONDITION OF THE MANUFACTURING

DISTRICTS OF •LANCASHIRE.

The continuance of short-time working by a large I
portion of the cotton factories in this district, and the total
stoppage of othen, together with the high pl ice of every
article of food, are producing moat distressing effete amongst
the operative population; and these effects will be aggravated
by the cessation of labour which usually takes place in
this (Wbitsun) week. A perambulation which we have
jest made through some of the streets of Manchester,
usually the most frequented by the factory hands, suggests
the conviction that some calamity has jest passed or is
passing over the town. No streams of workers hurry-
ing to and from the' mill meet the passenger ; no
thronged shops present themselves; no groups of
laughing, careless people are to be seen gossiping at street
ends. A few children romping you may ace here and there;
a few working men. too, you encounter, and remark their
troubled and emaciated looks. Hero and there a woman
may be seen creeping to the chandler's' shop, to beg for an-
other loaf on credit; for the pawnbroker has already got hold
of all that is tangible as security for an advance of money.
But the bulk of the population sit sadly within their nearly
desolated homes, too weak to seek relaxation or consolation
out of doors—too weak and ashamed to mike their distresess
visible to their neighbeurs or to the world. Those even who
are in full work have their share of the prevailing suffering.
The spinners, and other operatives thus in work, contribute
largely, and to their infinite credit, towards the assistance of
those who are not working ; and they are severely cramped,
in addition, by the high prices of food.
Another class are severe sufferers, viz., the small shop-
keepers who supply bread, groceries, , to the werking
classes on weekly credit. Their customers having neces-
sarily fallen back in their payments, they. have gone on
supplying them in the hope of a resumption of working,
and as their only chance of at list being repaid ; and the i
bulk of them are either ruined, or are n a struggling coa-
-1 dition. The more affluent tradesmen, by whom these are
supplied, are suffering from their ruin, and from the with-
drawal weekly from circulation of so large a portion of the
wages of the district.
So far the manufacturing population have borne their
privations with exemplary patience ; and even applications
for parochial aid have been comparatively few, the sufferers
preferring to endure to the last rather than submit them-
selves to the dreaded ordeal of the relieving officer and the
workhouse. Where we hear of largely increased pauperism
throughout the district, it generally found attributable to
the Inermse of casual and immigrant poor. It is to be
feared, however, that this forbearance under a pressure un-
exampled cannot continue long. Bad spirits arc said to be
at work to promote disturbance. Rumours of impending
riot and outrage are freely circulated; and such rumours, in
periods like the present, are generally realised ; not, how-
ever, by the real sufferers, but by those of whom plunder
and mischief are the objects.
As yet fever amongst the workpeople generally has not
shown itself in a greatly increased degree, the bulk of that
which is existing being confined to the immigrant Irish,
who swarm through the whole manufacturing districts., la
eating themselves in the low lodging-houses and the filthy
Irish streets and courts which, in every manufacturing town
and village, that portion of the population have set apart for
themselves. The rate of mortality, however, is fearfully
high, and is weekly getting higher, principally from dysen.
toy, diarrhma, &c., and from exhaustion. Many a case of
death from starvation' we aro credibly assured, might be
Sawed amongst the families of the poor spinners and weavers
et this county ; and, thould epidemic visit the district, its
=MP amongst a population, many of whom are reduced to
the Wrenn of emaciation, must be fearful.
In corroboration of what we have above stated, as the
rata of our own inquiries on the spot, the following
from a letter addressed to the authcrities of Mancheeptae7,ary)
Dr. Howard, one of the physicians of the Royal Infirmary
in that town, contains some very startling fact:
" It may appear a strong, and, to those not intimately
acqoainted with the condition of a large mass of the poor,
perhaps an exaggerated statement for me to make, but never-
theless I will not shrink from expressing my firm conviction
that a great number of the inhabitants of this town are, at
the
.present moment, daily perishing from the effects; of
deficiency of food—absolutely dying from want. I do not
make this statemer.t rashly, or unadvisedly—it is not the
theoretical or visionary opinion of a novice or an enthusiast.
The condition of the poor is not a subject which I have
only recently investigated—my attention has long been di-
rected to it. I have carefully studied the effects produced
among them by deficiency of food ; and I am not likely to
be deceived, either by the facts and symptoms I witness or
the statements I hear in my intercourse with them. My in-
formation is not acquired from hearsay—not:from the reports
of others ; it has been obtained from personal visitation and
attendance upon the indigent at their own houses. When in.
vestigating their diseases I have also inquired into their social
circumstances—have noticed the state of their dwellings,
their furniture, their clothing, and their food. I have heard
their own statements, and compared these with what I have
myself seen. For nearly la years past I have been ime-
stantly connected with the largest public institutions of the
town, either as a resident medical officer or as a physician;
and during this period I have, on several occasion., been
witness to a great deal of suffering and distress, and of
disease arising therefrom but I must candidly own I have
never seen so much and such aggravated destitution as I
have met with during the last few weeks. Within the
range of my observations, the present amount of destitutioa
is unparalleled; and, I repeat, I am convinced that numbers
are sinking into the grave solely from the want of food."
The patients admitted into the fever ward, Mr. Howard
says, are now frequently brought there from their beds, and
almost in a state of nudity.
What add+ to the distressed outward aspect of the ma-
nufacturing districts are the swarms of Irish paupers wbo
throng all the towns and villages, begging importunately,
and in some of the retired outskirts even threateningly,
The old tut apike-road between this port and the interior is
travelled over from morning till night by parties of these
forlorn-looking beings, tramping onwards, without an ap-
parent object, or a notion whither they are going, or what it
is they are in search of, beyond the food which they extort
upon the route, for any chance of procuring 'employment is
quite hopeless. Putting in force the provisions of the
Vagrancy Act towards them is impossible ; and any attempt
at doing to, without the means at hand to provide for their
necessities from the funds of the various parishes in which
they present themselves, would only operate to drive them
into the hack streets and the lanes to die of famine, or of the
fever which they bring with them, to be introduced amongst
oar own resident poor and classes.—Liverpool
Standard.

ALARMING FIRE AT HCNOERFORD-WHARF.—At
twenty minutes before five o'clock this morning a fire, which
at one time threatened destruction to a large pile of premises,
was discovered burning in the wharf of Mr. C. Milligan,
straw and hay merchant, Hungerford. Information of the
outbreak was communicated as soon ea possible to the West
of England and the Brigade stations, and engines from
several of them arrived at the scene not long after the
intelligence was received. By this time the fire had obtained
great hold of the stock in the loft over the stable, consisting
of bay and straw. The flames soon burst through the root,
bat there their violence was altered, a plentiful stream of
water being poured upon them from different points by the
West of England and Brigade engines. By six o'cleck,
however, all danger of the extension of the fire was at an
end. The damage is thus officially reported ,—" Part of roof,
with stock of hay and straw stored in the loft over the
stable, burned; the stable underneath damaged by water.
Extinguished by firemen. Building insured in the West of
England ; contents in the Sun Fire-office: cause unknown.
—The following damage is doneflty the fire to the contiguous
premises: Mr. F. Baxter's, shell-fish boiler, B:c., damage by
water. Contents insured in the Sun.—Messrs. W. Brotherton
and Co., engine-oil merchants, roof damaged by fire, and
slightly by water. Contents not insured ; building in the
West of England-office."
TILE POTATO DISEAsE.—Tho potato disease of last
season still remains a mystery, though the general imprewioa
among agriculturists sem to be, that it was caused by