The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-07-21 00:00:00

MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
AIANCHF.STER. WS:MIL/MIT AFTERNOON.
Since the meeting on Tuesday last, an account of which
I transmitted to you, Manchester up to this afternoon has
maintained the same gloomy and foreboding aspect. Ru-
mour statei that wtitten handbills have been issued, calling
upon all the holders of pikes and other arms to met and
be drilled. Although none of the more extensive manu-
facturers have stopped working since Monday, yet a few of
the smaller ones have ; consequently the crowds of the un-
employed seem to increase. At Oldham the bulk of the
working people are colliers, a business at present at the
very lowest ebb ; these people are very badly off; natu-
rally rude and boisterous, they berr up against the present
distresses but indifferently, and may be, in truth, called the
leaders of the discontented. _ _

As an example of the depreciation in the value of pro-
perty here at present, it may he mentioned that a licensed
public-house, for the lease of which, a few months ago,
400/. was offered and refused, was disposed of the other
day at Um/. The brewers, too, who usually were at work
every day, now find that to brew once a week is sufficient
to supply the demands of their customers. In the midst
of all this, however, the poor people have not lost sight of,
nor a taste for, their former amusements. Manchester
has long been famed for her pugilists, and a fight
which takes place on Tuesday next, at Birmingham,
between Burn and Magee, the Liverpool butcher, for 100/.
a side, it is said will attract vast numbers of the unem-
ployed. "We have nothing to do," say they, "and may
as well tramp to Brummagem and see the turn-up as stay
here." Several thousands are to start for Birmingham for
this purpose on Saturday.
Public feeling is much in favour of Sir John Byng, the
General of the district ; but notwithstanding his indefa-
tigable exertions in aid of the relief fund, it is fast coming
to an end, and scarcely a new item is added to the list.
Families continue to arrive from Oldham, Middleton,
Macclesfield, &c., and take up their abode in Manchester,
where, under the arms of the military, their persons and
properties are in a state of comparative safety. It is cal-
culated that no less than nine regiments, horse and foot,
can be mustered in the town of Manchester within half an
hour ; so that with that force it would be idle to talk of any
serious disturbances being attempted ; it is in the smaller
towns in the neighbourhood that most is to be appre-
hended.

I Front the Blackburn AraiLi
We regret that the state of our manufacturing and com-
mercial interests is by no means improved, but that, on the
contrary, affairs wear even a snore gloomy aspect. We
would, however, still indulge a hope, that as, according to
the condition of our finances, the energies of the country
are yet in a great measure unimpaired, the depression will
not continue much longer; but that, as things must sooner
or later find a level, and as the !lock of manufactured
goods must shortly be exhausted, even by the present lan-
guid demand, employment will he found for our artisans,
(and by this term we mean the working classes generally)
ere the rigours of winter set in around us. In the mean
time, there is quite enough of distress existing to call for an
abundant stream of charity ; and though no class is free
from the effects of the present convulsion, yet we hope a
nerve will be strained, some luxuries abridged, or some un-
necessary comfort given up, to afford to our perishing, half-
famished poor, the sustenance necessary for their existence.
We admit that much has already been done, but we would
urge our richer brethren to do more ;—the funds of the
several charities are decreasing, whilst the number of
ob-
Jecta to be relieved is increasing, and we would fain prevent,
by a timely relief, those baneful effects which hunger and
desperation are but too apt to produce.
Various schemes are proposed as remedies for this dis-
tressing state of things : some recommend that persons of
fortune should shut up their establishments, and ret►re and
spend their money in improving their estates ; some again
decry the use of machinery, and attribute to it all the ex-
isting distress, but do not point out a remedy for it ; and
others recommend an application to Government; and we
learn that some merchants have already laid the state of
their districts before the Secretary of State for the Home
Department. We fear, however, that by none of these
methods can the distress be effectively alleviated, but that
it must be left to work its own way, and in time, according
to former precedent, it will produce its own cure.
In this view of the case, patience is, however, a neces-
sary requisite; and it is, therefore, with unfeigned regret
we learn that symptoms of disaffection and insubordina-
tion have shown themselves at Manchester, evidently con-
nected with the circumstances alluded to in our last. iVe
would earnestly advise all those who may be within the
reach of our observations, to abstain from the counsels of
those wicked and designing men, who, taking advantage of
the prevailing distress, would goad them blindly to work
their own destruction. We would remind them that the
law has a strong arm, and we would remind them, too,
that violence can never prosper—that those who are in the
end the greatest sufferers by the insubordination of the
people, are the very persons who now feel most for their
distresses, and are anxious to relieve them to the best of
their power.

The wheat harvest has commenced in the vicinity of
Carmarthen, and we understand the crops promise nearly
an average produce.— Hertford Journal.