The Express.
London, England, 1862-11-04 00:00:00

[Stamped, ld. Additional.]

fully concurred in the tonne need by the noble earl who
proposed it.

- Colonel WILSON Parr= supported the motion, ob-
serving that it had been through his instrumentality that
the union between the Bridgwater Hones Committee and
the Committee in Manchester had taken place. And he
begged to take the opportunity of offering his thanks to
the Mayor of Manchester for the very courteous and reedy
manner in which he conducted the correspondence arising
out of that union.

The Earl of Wilton, the Mayor of Blackburn, and Sir J.
P. Say Shuttleworth supported the motion.

Mr. COBDEN, M.P., said—Before that resolution is passed
I will take the opportunity of making an observation. I
have had the homer of having my name added to this
committee, and the first thing I asked of my neighbour
here was, " What are the functions of the general commit-
tee !" And I have beeid that they amount to nothing
more then to attend here once a month, and remove the
report of the executive committee as to the honour dose,
and the diatributioe of funds. I was going to suggest to
you whether the duties of the general committee might
not be very much enlarged—whether it might not be employ• 3
very modally in Maiming the amount of subscriptions?
I think all our experience must have taught us that, with
the very best cause in the world in band, the suers of a
public subscription depends very much upon the amount of
activity in those who solicit it; and I think, is order to in-
duce us to make a general and national effort to rains addi-
tional funds In the peat it is only siossaary to
refer to and repeat one or two factt:hat have been Mated in
this report just read to us. I bud it stated that it is esti-
mated that the loss of wages at present is at the rate of
_

136,091/. per week represents upwards of 7,000,0004
sterling per annum ; and that is the rate at which
the deduction is now being made from the wages of labour
in this district. I see it stated in this report that the
resources which this committee can at present foresee
that it will powers to relieve this amount of distress are
25,0001. • month for the next five months, which is at
the rate of 300.0001. per annum. So that we foresee at pre-
*sot the means of afforffiug a relief of something less than
5 per cent. upon the actual amount of the loss of wages at
present incurred by the working-classes of this country.
But I need not tell hon. gentlemen present, who are so
practically acquainted with this dictrict, that the lose
of seven millions in wages per annum is a very imper-
fect measure of the amount of suffering and loss
which will be inflicted on this community three or
four months hence. It may be taken to be ten mil
lions; and that ten millions of loss of wages before the
next spring is by no means • measure of the loss this dis-
trict will incur ; for you must take it that the capitalists
will be incurring also • loss on their fixed machinery and
buildings, and though perhaps not so much as that of the
labourer, it will be a vlep7e,large amount, and possibly in the
opinion of some pen will very nearly approach it.
That is not all. Mr. &mall has told us that at present the
increase of the rates in this district is at the rata of 10,0001.
per week. That will be at the rate of half a million per annum,
and, of course, if this distress goes on, that rate must be
largely increased, perhaps doubled. This shows the amount
of pressure which is threatening this immediate district. I
have always been of opinion that this distress and suffering
here must be cumulative to a degree which few people have
ever foreseen, because your means of meeting the difficulty
will diminish just in proportion as the difficulty will in-
crease. Mr. Fantail has told us that one-third of the rate-
able property will fall out of existence, as it were, and
future rates must be levied upon two-thirds. But that will
be by no means the measure of the condition of things
two or three months hence, because every additional
rate forces out of existence • large amount of
rateable property, and the more you increase your rates the
more you diminish the area over which those rates are to be
productive. This view of the case has • very important
bearing also upon the condition of the shopkeeping class, as
well as the classes of millownen and manufacturers who
have not a large amount of floating capital. There is no
doubt but • very large amount of the shopkeeping class are
rapidly falling into the condition of the unemployed la-
bourer'. When I was at Rochdale the other day I heard •
very sorrowful example of it. There was a poor woman
who kept • shop, and she was threatened with • distraint
for the poor rate. She sold the Sunday clothes of her son to
pay the poor rate, and she renewed a relief ticket when
she went to leave her rate. That is a sad and sorrowful
exempla, but I am afraid it will not be a solitary one for •
long time. Theo you have the shopkeeping class desosading
to the rank of the operatives. It must be so. Withdraw the
custom of 7,000,000/. per annum, which have ceased to be
paid in wages, from the shopkeepers, sad the consequence
must present itself to any rational mind. We have, then,
soother class ; the young men of superior education em-
ployed in warehouses and counting-houses. A great number
of those will rapidly sink to the condition in which you
find the operative classes. All this will add to
the distress and the embarrassment of this part of
the kingdom. Now, to meet this state of things you have
the pour-law relief, which is the only relief we can rely
upon, except that which comes from our own voluntary
exertions. Well, but any one who has read over this report
of Mr. Yarnell, just laid before us, must see how inadequate
this relief must be. It runs up from Is. 04d. in the pound
to Is. 4d. to Is. sd. ; there is hardly one case in which the
allowance is as much as is. per week for each individual—l
won't call them paupers—each distressed individual. Now
there is one point to which I would wish to bring the
attention of the committee in reference to this subject ; it
is a most important one in my appreciation. In
ordinary times, when you give relief to the poor,
that relief being given when the great mass of workpeople
are in full employment, the measure of your relief to an
isolated family or two that may be in distress is by no means
the measure of the amount of their subsistence, teams we
all know that in prosperous times, when the bulk of work-
ing people are employed, they are always kind to each other.
The poor, in fact, do more to relieve the poor than any
other chas. A working man and his family out of em-
ployment in prosperous times could get • meal at a neigh-
bour's house, just as we, in ourclaas, could get • meal at a
neighbour's house if it was a convenience to us in making a
journey. But recollect, that now the whole roam of the
working population is brought down to one sad level
of destitution, and what you allow them from the poor
rates, Rol what you allow them from these voluntary sub-
scriptions, is actually the measure of all that they will
obtain for their subsistence. And that being so general.
producing • great depression of spirits, as well as a physical
prostration, you are in great danger of the health and
strength of this community suffering mikes something more
be done to meet the case than, I fear, is yet provided for it.
All this brings me to this conclusion—that something more
must be done by this general committee than has been dose
to awaken the attention of the public generally to the con-
dition of this part of the country. It is totally
exceptionel. The state of things has no pa-
rallel in all history. It is impossible you could
point out to me another case in which, in a limited
sphere, such as we have in Lancashire, and in the course of
a few months, there has been • cessation of employment at
the rate of 7,000,0001. sterling per annum in wages. There
has been nothing like it in the history of the world for its
soddenness, for the impossibility of dealing with it, or manag-
ing it in the way of an effective remedy. Well, the country
at large must be made acquainted with these facts. How
is that to be done! It can only be by the diffusion of in-
formation from this central committer. An appal must be
made to the whole country. if this greet destitution is to be
met in any part by voluntary aid. The nation at large must
be made fully aequainted with the exigency of the case, and
we must be reminded that • national responsibility rests upon
us. I will therefore suggest that this general committee
should be made • national committee, and we will then get
rid of this little difficulty with the Lord Mayor. We shall
want all the co-operation of the Lord Mayor and the City
of London ; and I say this committee, instead of being •
Manchester or Lancashire central committee, should be
made a national committee ; that from this should go forth
invitations to all parts of the country, beginning with the
lords-lieutenant, inviting them to be vice-presidents of this
committee. Let the noble lord continue to be at the head
of the general committee—the national committee, and
invite every mayor to take part. We are going to have new
mayors in the course of the week, and though I am sorry
to lose our present one, yet when new mayors come in
they may be probably more ready to take up a new under-
taking than if they had just bees exhausted with a year's
labour. Let every mayor in the kingdom be invited to
become • member of this committee. Let subecriptiou cir-
culars be despatched to them, asking them to organise •
committee in every borough ; and let there be • secretary
and hon. secretary employed. Through these bodies you
might communicate information, and counteract those mis-
representations that have been made with regard to the
condition of this district. You might, if necessary, send an
ambassador to some of theme more important places ; but,
better still, if you could induce them to send some one here
to look into the state of things for themselves ' • because I
am sure, if they did, so far from finding thatthosecalum-
nies that have been uttered egaioat the propertied dunes
in this country being well founded, they would find instances,
and Dot • few, of great liberality and generosity, and melt
as, I think, would surprise any one who visited this district
from the southern part of the kingdom. This could only
be dot's by as active effort from the centre here, and I sub-
mit that we shall not be doing justice to this effort unless
we give to the whole country au opportunity of co-operating
in that way, and throw upon every part of the kingdom a
share of the responsibility of this great crisis and emergency.
1 submit that there is every motive whe this community, as
well as the whole kingdom, should wish to preserve this
industrious population in health and in the possession of
their energies. There is every motive why we should
endeavour to keep the working population here rather than
drive them away from here, as you will do if they ere Dot
sufficiently fed and clothed during the next winter. They
will be wanted again if this district is to revive, as
we all hope and believe it will revive. Your fixed capital
here is of no use without the population ; it is of no see
I without your raw material. Lancashire is the richest county
i in the kingdom when its machinery is employed; it is the
poorest county in the kingdom when its aisekisery sad fixed

[TWOPENCE

capital are paralysed, as at present. Therefor* I say it is
the interest, not only of this community, bat of the king-
dom, that this population should be preserved for the time
—I hope not • distant time—when the raw material of their
industry will be supplied to this region. I submit
then to the whole kingdom—this district as well &Atha rest—
that it will be advisable, until parliament meets, that such
an effort should be made as will make a national subscrip-
tion amount probably to a million. Short, of that it would
be utterly insufficient for the case ; and I believe that with
an energetic appeal made to the whole country, and an
effort organised such as I have indicated, such an amount
might be raised.
The MATOR briefly acknowledged the compliment which
had been paid to him, and the meeting then separated.
MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

A meeting of the Central Executive Committee
was labia at the close of the general meeting. Lord Warr
prellided. The Hoe. Secretary reported that cheques for
the amounts voted at the lut meeting had been for-
warded and duly acknowledged, and that the amount
received and promised duriug the past week wee
9.1.751. Be. 9d. Letters bad been received from the
Bishops of Durham and ' Hereford, enclosing copies d
letters to their clergy. The clothing subcommittee had
met and ordered the despatch of all clothing specially con-
signed, and voted 40.000 articles to the various district
committees. Tbe sub-committee for the division of the
district bad also met and carried out the duty entrusted to
it. In order to prepare the report, the hoc. secretary dater
he bad issued *molars to every board of guardians
and rebel committee in the district, and he was therefame
we

iiuTaesre-I"erreiTaik;
' petted to find that in the following three small unions dis-
tress was becoming very severe as compared with the cor-
responding week last year. In the Fylde there was an in-
crease of 209; Garstang, 283; Hayfield, 336. Saddlewcath,
1,508. The hon. secretazy further stated that he bad
received 3,000 needles from Marrs. John James and Son
Radditch, and also a letter from the Rev. G. Walker, of
Cheltenham, who sent the first amount to this
fund, stating that a second collection had been
made at the request of the Bishop of Bath
and Wells in that town amounting to 1,0761. Is. 7d.
Sir Jenne Kay Shuttleworth stated that be was authorised
by Sir Daniel Cooper and Mr. Hamilton to inform the com-
mittee that the whole of the New South Wake fund wen
specially appropriated to schools for youth, sewing dames
for females, and the school pence of children. This fund
would probably considerably exceed 15,0004, but mohair(
on the basis of that sum only, he (Sir James) was de-
sirous to submit for the consideration of the committee a
scale of distribution which, if adopted, it might be de-
sirable to make known for the guidance of local commit-
tees in their admigistration. If, ea was too probable,
250,000 f operatives were out of work at Christ-
mas, and one- alt of them were dependent on the relief
committee for support, they would consist of the follow-
int classes : Five-tenths of that half, or 62,500, would
be women ; about three-tenths, or 37,500, boys and girls ;
and about two-tenths, or 25,000, men and youths. If
35,000 females attended the savant clauses. 27,500 would
be left at home to attend to the families of 125,000 fac-
tory workmen, which, taking into account the fact that
many mothers and some daughters are not at work in fac-
tories, would provide for domestic service. If 35,000
females were divided into MO classes of about 150 on the
average, the . superintendent@ would require stipends of
18/. 15s. for six months, or 15s. per week, making a total of
4.3121. Twenty-four weeks' schooling for an average
attendance of 30,000 boys and girls, at 2d. per week, would
cause an outlay of 6004 and 1,0001. might be granted
towards the cost of the erioolling of younger children of
families in receipt of relief. The stipends of masters of
100 schools, containing 15,000 youths, would, at 30s. per
week, amount in six months to 3,750/. Ds. These schools
would also each require eight anistants, selected
from well-qualified youths out of work, and re-
munerated by an extra rate of relief. The super-
intendence of the work of 33,000 women, the school-
ing of 30,000 boys and girls and of 15,000 youths,
might thus be provided for 14,0621., and 1,0001. applied
towards the school pence of the children too youog to
work. The anticipated further remittances from New
South Wales would provide, at least partially, for any
increase of these forms of dependence beyond these limits
during the next six months. It was resolved,—" That,
with due regard to the local circumstances, and to the
information to be given in the schedule appended to the
circular issued by this committee, applications far aid
from the New South Wide* fund be regulated on the
basis of this estimate, on the understanding that any
grant for schools for youth or sewing classes is also ap.
pliableto the hiring of rooms and incidental expenses,
and in sewing chases for the purchase of material to be
made into clothes and distributed as relief ; that the
grants from this committee will be made io support of any
school or sewing class for three months, so as to enable the
local committees to engage touchers and superintendents foe
that period, and that applications may be received prior to
the expiration of this tame forward, to enable them to renew
the engagements."
In reply to a letter the bon. secretary was instructed to
state that the committee had already suggested a plan which
would satisfactorily provide for the relief of the distress in
Hurst, and that, in the meantime, the committee could only
recognise the body that had received a grant.
The following grants were made :—Crompton, 2001. ;
Stackstead, 250/.; Pad-sham, 20014 Leyland, 1001.• Pendia-
bury and Swinton, 3001.; Failaworth 2001.; Manchester,
3,500/. ; Wigan, 1.5001.; Rochdale, 2,0004; Moseley, 4004;
Moorside, 601.; if illbrook, 1501.; Ravrtenstall, 4001.

Last night a numerously attended and influential
public meeting of the inhabitants of Woolwich, Charlton,
and Plansteed was held at the Town Hall, Woolwich, to
adopt measures far assisting to relieve the existing distress
is the cotton districts. The chair was occupied by Mr. John
Cowen, and on the platform were Mr. W. Angeretein, M.P.
for the borough of Greenwich ; the Revs. J. Conolly, minis-
ter!of the yard Church,Mr.De-la-Mare, incumbent of St.
Thomas's Rudduck, Mr. Teal, and other influential residents
of the locality. Letters were received from Alderman Sa-
lomon., M.P., apologising for unavoidable absence on ac-
count of indisposition, and enclosing 10 guineas towards the
funds; from Sir T. M. Wilson. Bart., Old Charlton,
enclosing a subscription of 101., and from Sir R. J. Dames,
commandant, and other officers, promising co-operation with
the objects of the meeting.
A committee was formed for receiving subscriptions.

LORD WIDITBURY'S CARRIAOE STOPS THE WAY.
—During several hours yesterday, in consequence of the
course adopted by the Lord Chaomllor. of bolding him
levees to initiate the business of the term in the new hall of
the Middle Temple, instead of at his private residence, as
has been usual, there was • continuous flow of carriages
freighted with gentlemen of the long robe through Temple.
bar, and this so interfered with the usual street traffic as
to entirely impede it. The City police undertook the duty
of making the necessary arrangements to facilitate
the passage of so great an influx of vehicles within
the City boundaries, but the effort so overtaxed
their ingenuity, that they bad to give it up in
despair, and the only solution they could find of the
difficulty in which they were planed was, to prevent all the
omnibuses, cabs. and waggons goiag eastward from proceeding
beyond the limits of the Strand until such time as tbe bar-
risters had paid their respects" to the official bead of their
profession. This mined a regular block ali down Pickett.
place so far am Somerset-house, as the vehicles referred to
could neither move forward or return to seek some bye way
into the City, to the great annoyance of the passengers who
were M a hurry to attend to their business there.
UNIVEREWTY COLLEOR, LONDON.—The first meet-
ing of the council for the masion 1862-1863 was held on
Saturday last. A letter was read, addressed to the Presi-
dent by Earl Russell, Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, with an offer to nomieate one student of the collage
recommended by the president for the privilege of com-
peting at an examination by the Civil Service Commission of
candidates for appointment of student interpreters in China
and Siam ; the limit of age to be between 18 years complete
and 24 years complete. The council fixed the 20th instant
for the last day of receiving applications from students
whether of the present or former years. On the
report of the examiners, Professor Sharpy, M.D.,
Professor Ei ichsen, and Professor Wilson Fox, M.D.;
the Finite, Exhibition for proficiency in pathological ana-
tonay (3014, was awarded to Mr. ThomasGriffiths, of
Dryalwyn-fawr, Carmarthenshire. Two Andrews scholar-
ships of 85!. each, one for classics and one for mathematics,
were awarded respectively to Mr. Augustus Samuel W Akins,
of Brixton, and Mr. George Campbell De Morgan, of London.
The examiner, having reported in highly favonnible terms
of the merits of Mr. Philip Magnus in the mathematical
examination", • second Andrews scholarship of 60/. was
conferred on him. The examiners were--Mr. Bunnell
Lewis. A.M., professor of Latin in Queen's College, Cork,
with Professors Malden sod Newnan, for classics ; and W. M.
Bement, Faq., of St. John's College, Cambridge, A.M., with
Professor De Morgan and Prefer°, Potter, for mathematics,
THE OUTWARD WHIT INDIA, MEXICAN, AND
r PACIFIC MAILII.-800TRANITOK Nov. 3.—The Royal Nan
Company's steamship Atrato, Captain Welk; sailed hence
to-day for the British and Foreign Wen Indies, Mexico,
the Pacific, California, and Central Americo. together with
260 whom are the Rev. W. Weymouth,
for fr=ll7l4.4sllysa, for Antigua ; Rev. Mr. Ban.
field, for Bt. Vincent; Rev. Mr. Maynard, for St. Kitt's ;
and Col. Reynolds and Rev. Mr. Jones, for demise. The
Atrato took oat on freight : &Wish gold, 11,6951. ; jewel-
lery. plate, Mc.. 2,5461. ; quicksiher, value 800/. ; French
goldgo of F , 2,0001.
rench ; je
sad Emilie\ nverehandre.wellery, watches. an., 8,0841. ; and a full
ou

Geutlemen who require Rood and fashionable
DTI. can depend on the beet materials and latest style ;of which
specimen pannente an keo fee inspection or sale!, at Hamil-
ton and
IIC imptmis, 101, Skaat. opposite /aster Hall.—(idver-
tbermett.