The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-11 00:00:00

oils times they pay litte attention to careful domes-
' tic economy, and now that it is needed they have no
knowledge how to turn their f,canty inc In( s to the
best adv;intage. If the nAoney which spend in
food was laid out to the best account, a they were
able to cook the materials Co procu- in the mot
nseful manner and without waste, their rear rve
would go much further than they now do. An ex-
Creme instance of ignorance in these respects was
exhibited by a poor girl at Preston who paid half
her earnings in rent and tried to keep herself alive
upon the remaining 15d. a week. This would have
been difficult with the best management, " but her
notions of economy were comprised in bread and
tai, and death by scurvy was the result of them."
The ordinary diet of the unemployed, as witnessed
by Dr. Buchanan, was almost exclusively vegetable ;
occasionally only they effcrded a bit of bacon,
cheese, or butter, a herring, or, more rarely still, a
morsel of cheap meat.
" Bread constitutes the greatest part of their daily food.
Oatmeal or meal of Indian corn less commonly is the next
most usual food, made into porridge or into various sorts of
bread. To these a little butter or treacle is added generally
for the children when they can afford it. Potatoes stand
next, being happily good, cheap, and generally popular.
Partly from want of utensils, partly from inexpertness, their
cooking gives no variety to these materials. Tea with
sugar, but usually without milk, is now the common drink.,
In very few families can a proper amount of milk, even it
any at all, be bought for the children ; they are put on the
same food as the adults at much too early an age."
After such a picture as this, it is satisfactory to
learn that, although animal food was so scantily
consumed in a solid form, the poorest usually buy-
ing none, yet, "in almost all towns there are soup
kitchens, where a quart of good meat soup is given
fora penny;" that "in some few towns potato-hash"t
a
(locally called " bob sconce") " may be had a
penny a pint," and that "in Manchester and
Salford public dining kitchens base been , lately
established, where not only soup, but meals of meat
m
mand n
tpotatoes.,,
ri,he cana d
advantage
forthaagde of ns extremelyueh
estas small
enptayi-
strikingly illustrated by the fact that— In ss
these
mal food can be got for the same m
ways a dinner containing about two ounces
oeunctehsat i
ofnatnhie-
homes of the poor would only procure a dish of po-
tatoes or a basin of porridge.
As far as the better class of cotton workers were
concerned, there was at the time of this report bat
little alteration as regarded the houses which they
Tbey were, as a rule, inhabiting the
occupied.
same cottages of three or four rooms that they occu-
pied in more prosperous times. There was among
them but little disposition to crowd together,
though often a married son or daughter came
back to live with their parents, in order to save
rent. Among the poorer classes, however, things
were worse. Many who formerly rented a two or
three-roomed cottage were obliged to content them-
selves with a single room, while others took a
stranger to lodge with the family. In the very
poorest class two families frequently occupied a
single room, one bed sufficing for the whole of each
family. The amount paid for rent varied consider-
ably in different towns, and even in the same town
according to the means and disposition of landlords.
The owners of single cottages, often poor persons, to
whose support the rent was a material contribution,
were obliged to bear rather hardly upon the tenants,
but larger owners could afford to wait for their

rents, and as a rule they showed considerable libe-
rality. Distraint was rare, and not many cottages
were to be seen empty. The average of rent paid
was probably much less than half the usual amount.
Only in one town, Oldham, did the Relief Com-
mittees make a separate provision for the rent of
the people whom they were assisting, but as a rule
tLe committees regarded a portion of their grant as

applicable to this purpose, and arranged their allow

ante with reference to that circumstance. Over-
crowding was distinctly on the increase, and had in
December reached a pitch fatal to cleanliness and

purity of air, and equa4 so to sexual delicacy.
In the very poorest cottages there was a further
reason for overcrowding, besides the desire to save
rent.
"In the bitter frosts of November the most destitute
began to huddle together as closely as possible for warmth,
and, being sadly deficient in bedding, their day clothes
often serving for their only covering by night, they care-
fully excluded from their crowded bedrooms every breath
of sir. If they rented two bedrooms, they brought the beds
together into one. Six or eight people would come at night
into a room 12 feet square, with the window and door closed
and padded, and the fireplace (as is almost univerfril with
them) thoroughly papered up, and lie as closely as they
could for the heat of etch others' bodies. They got their
warmth indeed, but in a fashion that was monstrously
hurtful to their health."

Even when Dr. Buchanan visited the manufac-

Luring districts a check had be.eu given to the over-
crowding which resulted from mere cold by the
distribution of bedding, and it is to be hoped that
in the ensuing winter the poor will never be driven
to such unwholesome shifts to keep up the animal
heat.

In the article of dress the cotton operatives had
suffered as much as is those of food or lodging.
First their Sunday clothes, then their changee of
linen, were sold or pawned, and their single suit,
if not diminished in the same way, was worn to
shreds. The poorest people were constantly with-
out underclothing, and a single petticoat and
bodice often formed the entire wardrobe of a
woman or child. In such a state, and with deficient
bedding they were found by the early frosts of No-
vemb3r. Had we had a veriwct or cold winter, the
rate of mortality would have been frightful. As it
was, bronchitis was exceedingly prevalent, even

mong the women and children, and the men who

were employed at out-door labour seem to have
suffered with especial severity from diseases pro-
duced by the cold. They would have suffered more
had not the Guardians in the worst weather dis-
pensed with the test of oat-door labour. De. Bu-
chanan found nothing to observe upon in the exter-
nal condition of the houses and streets as effected by
the distress, but as to the inside of the houses in-
habited by the poorer classes he states that these
was a general want of cleanliness, in part connected
with their having more inhabitants, and in part due
to the cost of cleaning materials. Landlords,whose
weekly visit for rent was made in vain, appeared to
have become careless about the wholesomeness of
their houses, and few of the local e.uthoritie, had
acted on their powers of compelling attention to
these matters. D miestic cieanduess had been often
preserved under many incentives to its neglect, a
result which was probably greatly promoted by the
gratuitous distribution of soap by many of the relief
committees. It' the old standard of personal tidi-
ness had not been maintained, there had been lees
slovenliness and dirt than might have beer. ex-
pected. In the Preston Union, when a dirty person
applied for relief, the Guardians, before considering
his case, sect biza off with a tick:A to the nearest
bath.
One of the most interesting and effeenal means
which henevolencs created to contend with distress
last winter was the sewing schools, end it is satis-
factory to learn from De. Buchanan that " from a
medical point of view it would hardly be possible so
give too much praise" to them. " Triousands of
persons," he says," but especially of young woman,
are provided in them with shelter and warmth
thtoughout the day, are act. to useful work, fur-
nished with clothes and money and kept from the
mental harm of idleness." Excellent as these insti•

tstitions are, at the time of the dextor's vkit one
f:;kae:teorraylil
inns fault pervaded them ; they exnibited a la-
mentable deficiency of ventilation. Held, as they
lation without
uur
place yorwiel e in the large, low
, room of an empty
of
ehii
rtt a Fchoolroom intended for a less num-
pro:ae'da, the original construction of neither
The girls used
for a Lai-lc:lent change of air, " venti-
to draught e,„N'pg scarcely possible."
left off°
all
the
Windowtheir hot mills, inejsted on shut-
tingofte intolerably 41;peso
stances we are not that the at:mil/Lei.," was
learn that the lady
Burifei and under such circntn-
superintendents often
and that more than
headaches,: that the faces vg°ll( Wil4 the intense
of the '
Wo-menPinetshton.
were seen unhealthily flushed, a Pea thernoelves
one of them had fainted over her acwinc,
The only schools which were einem; .
at Preston,
were those established by the guardians
getting out of health, and at thee
fiaerned that the young
It had lately
schools had been
request of the managers Dr Buchanan undertook an
investigation into the nature, extent, and
,canoes of
their sufferings. Of 36 girls examined eight had ail-