The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-28 00:00:00

HIGH WATIR AT LONDON 6RIDGZ.

IV. wT -Mantas. 3h. 40tik...7.74/3;ZZZ-40.
To4hasioW—Maralas, 4h. Dra.....Altlemeas. 4h. 361 a.

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 28.

. THE rapidly increasing distress in the cotton
districts is a social problem that pre-eminently re-
quires to be dealt with in the most practical and
businesslike manner, as well as in the most con-
siderate and generous spirit. Already it is quite
clear that its vast proportions and peculiar features
will tax to the uttermost all the resources not only
of local liberality to supply the necessary relief
funds, but of local organization and capacity to
superintend their wise and equitable distribution.
The more widely the suffering extends the more
necessary does it become to keep clearly in view
the main object& to be aimed at in the means
adopted for its temporary relief. It is not by any
means enough that the mill hands should be kept
during the winter mouths from actual starvation,
though that is of course a primary necessity.
These skilled, industrious, and intelligent artisans
are, both in a moral and material point of view, of
almost incalculable value to the nation. In this latter
respect alone, as a wealth-producing power, every
class in the country is more or less interested in
their welfare. But while the continued existence
and unimpaired efficiency of this large body of
skilled workmen is to some extent an object of
national concern, it is of course a primary neces-
sity for the manufacturing districts themselves.
These men are absolutely indispensable to the
prosperity of Lancashire. They are the vital
factors in the production of the millowners' and
manufacturers' wealth, and these classes are there-
fore directly concerned not only in maintaining
the factory hands above starvation point, but in
keeping them as much as possible together, and
administering relief in a form least likely to impair
the moral and social qualities which render them
so valuable as workmen. In other words , the
guiding principles of local relief should be to avoid
subjecting the recipients of it to unnecessary
hardships or injurious exposure, to prevent the
formation of vagrant habits, and to maintain, as
far as possible, the feeling of self-respect and noble
spirit of endurance which are the striking moral
characteristics of this suffering class.
In the measures hitherto adopted these objects
appear, in some cases at least, to have been hardly
sufficiently kept in view. What is called the
"labour test" has been indiscriminately applied,
under conditions of needless hardship or degra-
dation. The main grounds of complaint were
stated at Manchester by the men themselves.
After the meeting of the Central Relief Committee,
a deputation of operatives bad an interview with
theldembers for South Lancashire, for the purpose
of submitting to them the objections that had been
felt, not to the " labour teat" in itself, but to
certain irritating and degrading forms of it. A
common form of this test at Preston and elsewhere
is the stone-yard, where the supple-fingered ope-
rative, accustomed to work in an atmosphere of
80 degrees of heat, has to break a ton of stone for
a shilling. At Preston the mill hands are more-
over employed in levelling a moor and drain-
ing a marsh, to which, however, as mere work,
there seems to be no very strong objection as long
as the fine weather lasts. But in all these em-
ployments they are associated with gangsof regular
paupers, and this is very justly made a special
ground of complaint by the factory hands. They
also complain that the labour is in many cases un-
productive, whereas they wish to earn the money
they receive. The spokesman of the Manchester.
deputation summed up the present and prospec-
tive grounds of objection against labour of this
sort :—" In the coming wet and cold months of
" winter, if they had to work unprotected from
" the keen and bitter blasts, their health and con-
" atitution must break down. The operatives did
" not object to work, but they objected to
" employment which would jeopardize their health
" and lives, and which placed them on a level with
" self-maile paupers. They also wished to be kept
" apart from the contaminating and demoralising
" influence of self-made paupers—people who
" would not work, if they could help
" it, at any employment. What they
" wanted was that they should not have
" unsuitable labour, that they should be
" protected from the weather, that they should
" not be employed upon unproductive labour, and
" that they should not be forced into the society
" of regular paupers. They wanted work suitable
" to the strength and habits of the operatives.
" They wished through their representatives and
" public opinion to obtain these concessions, in
" order that when trade revived they might re-
" sume their old occupations without a sense of
" degradation, untainted and uncontaminated by
"the example of ordinary paupers, and
" with a reasonable chance of health." This
is a just and reasonable plea, temperately
urged, and it will no doubt have its
effect. So far as the association with the pauper-
gangs is concerned, that evil might be put a stop
to at once, as it ought to be. But the real diffi-
culty with regard to the labour test is, of course,
to find any suitable work for these skilled arti-
sans to do. With regard to the younger work-
people, the boys and girls, the problem is more
easily solved by sending them to schooL
In most of the suffering districts sewing
classes have been opened for the girls and young
women who are out of employment, and they are
very numerously attended. The factory girls in
these schools are usefully employed in making
winter garments, which they will be allowed to
purchase out of their earnings at coat price. At
Wigan it has been suggested with regard to factory
boys, "that all under the age of sixteen belonging
"to families receiving relief from the Committee,

"should be required to attend some school, the'
"Committee paying the fee for instruction." To
provide these youths with mental instead of
manual work would undoubtedly be turning their
enforced leisure to good account. The same plan
might in many cases be adopted with regard to the
adult recipients of charitable relief. Even
nominal labour, such as has already been
adopted in one or two cases, would be far
better than work of an injurious, useless', or
degrading kind. One firm, for example, lately
employing two thousand hands, gives them, it is said,
three days' wages a week, without any mill work
being done at all. But for the sake of keeping
them together, and to prevent the formation of
idle, vagrant habits, they have issued an order for
the workpeople to muster at the mills every day
at a certain hour, and be kept there a short
time to clean the machinery. This is a very
simple and considerate plan, and there seems
no reason why it should not be adopted in other
cases. And certainly some modification of the
ordinary pauper "labour test" ought to be adopted
with regard to tho mill hands who may be com-
pelled to apply for parochial relief. That it is
often applied in an unjust and irritating form is
clear from the statement made by one of the
speakers of the Manchester deputation :—" One
" part of the present system was that the man
" who received 3d. a day worked as long as the
" one who got 9d. That morning he had seen
" 60 men at work with only two barrows and six
" spades, so that only eight could work at once.
" If it were winter, the 52 idle lookers on would
" starve to death, and nobody be the better for
" such a test." It cannot be too often repeated
that this is not a case of ordinary distreas, and
that even in receiving parochial relief these indus-
trious artisans, who are destitute from no fault
of their own, ought to be saved as much as
possible from the degradation that is designedly
inflicted on indolent and wilful pauperism.

gbt Court.

BALMORAL, AUGUST 26.

Her Majesty, with the Princess Helena, drove
in the neighbourhood el the Castle, attended by the Hoo.
Ida. Bruce.

Viscount and Visoonstela Palmerston left their residence
in Piccadilly yesterday, for Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire.
Deepatchte were received yesterday at the Colonial-
oflios, from the Governors of Ceylon, Hoag Kong, Malta,
and Lama.

The Duchess Dowager of Buckingham has arrived
at Brighton from Stowe. Buckinghamshire.

The Marquis of Lansdowne will leave Lansdowne
Haan to-day for Bowood.

Lord and Lady Rendleshara have left Seamore-
place, Mayfair, for B.andleablua Hall, Suffolk.

Lord and Lady Templemore will leave town in a
few days for their seat, Dunbrody Park. county Wexford.

Lay Kathleen Tighe gave birth to a eon at her
residence in Upper Brook-street on Sunday last.

The Right Hon. W. F. Cowper, M. P., and Mrs.
Cowper will leave Carson-street on Friday, oa a continental
toar.

Since his arrival in Gleneak—where he is the
guest of the Earl of /Dalhousie at invermark—the Duke of
Cambridge has had excellent weather. He was out on
Saturday and shot 24 brace of grouse, 2 snipes, and 3
hares. One of the birds did not rise well, or was brought
down by the duke before it got fairly up, for in shooting it
a hare crossed the line of fire, and was rolled over and killed
Ly the contents of the lame barreL Hie royal highness
attended divine service in the Scottish Episcopal Chapel at
Tarfaide on Sunday forenoon.

Yesterday the marriage of Viscount Hohnesdale,
11. P., eldest son of the Earl Amherst, and Lady Julia
Mann Cornwallis, only child of James, fifth Earl Corn-
wallis, and heiress of Linton-place, was celebrated at the
village of Linton, near Maidstone.