The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-20 00:00:00

VIE COTTON FAMINE.

The health of the people in the manufacturing
districts of Lancashire and Cheshire has naturally
been a subject of great anxiety to those who watched
the development of the distress which has followed
the cotton failare, for It was not forgotten that dur-
ing the period of the Irish famine Lancashire expe-
tienced a death-rate which looked as though she
herself were stricken with pestilence. I❑ 1846 and
1847 provisions, in consequence of the failure of the
potato, were dear, and employment scarce from the
depression of trade. The starving Irish thronged
the quays of Liverpool and crowded the streets of
Manchester, or they were huddled together beyond
811 experience in the poorest and dirtiest of neigh-
bourhoods. " Liverpool," said the Registrar Gene-
ral. " has for a year been the hospital and cemetery
of Ireland." The deaths which in Lancashire, dur-
ing 1844 and 1845, averaged 45,993, rose in the
following year to 69,627, and in 1847 to 68,765 ;
hence, in 1846, they were nearly 14,000 in excess
of that which may be properly termed the normal
death-rate of the county ; but in the next year this
excess had risen to 23,000. In the two years ab ut
36,000 persons perished, who, if the sanitary condi-
tion of this district had experienced no deteriora-
tion, would have lived. Though the Irish immi-
grants and the Irish fever must be credited with
some portion of this terrible mortality, the Regis-
trar-General regarded indigenous and not exotic
causes by far the most active agents in its produc-
tion. The sufferings of tne poor at that time are in-
dicated by the increased poor rate, which was then
regarded as very heavy, but which, in comparison
with the far larger expenditure of the present day,
now appears insignificant.
By the assistance of the tables of mortality
recently issued from Somerset House, a parallel can
be drawn between the death-rate during one year
of the cotton famine, with that which prevailed
during the Irish famine, in our great manufacturing
county. Taking the years ended with March, we
find that the deaths in Lancashire, in 1860-61 were
59,116, in 1861-62 they were 65,464, sod in 1862 63
they were 63,694. These present a strong and a
very gratifying contrast with those we have just
been considering. It was not until the commence-
ment of the last three years which have just elapsed
that the distress in the north was sufficiently great
to attract the notice of Parliament. We see, how-
ever, that the deaths were only 4,578 in excess of
1860 61, a year of great manufacturing activity,
and that they were 1,770 below 1861-62. It will be
shown hereafter, when we limit the observations to
the cotton manufacturing unions, that the evidence
of their generally healthy condition is still more
remarkable.

Last autumn, when public attention had been
called to the marked decrease in the mortality
of some of the most distressed of the Lancashire
unions, the Registrar-General observed, with judi-
cious caution, that "It had been assumed as
obvioas that if the death-rate in the distressed
districts does not exceed or falls below
that which has prevailed in times of pros-

perity, the relief obtained by the unemployed,
from public and private sources, has sufficed
to maintain them in health. The allow-
ance may or may not have been sufficient in
amount, but the returns of mortality furnish no

evidence of the fact; they only show that extreme
consequences of famine have not yet been mani-
fested." It is reassuring to find the Registrar-

General with a whole winter's additional experi-
enc.', of the distress, the relief, and the death-rate in
the North, admitting, with some emphasis, " that
the legal provision for the distressed, and the spon,
taneous liberality of their countrymen, have hitherto
sufficed to maintain the people in health."
There is another way of testing the Lancashire
death-rate, that is, 17 comparing it with that which
has ruled in a neighbouring county. The West
Riding of York, during the three years under re-

view, has, with a few inconsiderable exemptions

sustained an active industrial life; but the returns
do not tell of a more healthy state of her inha-

bitants, with relation to antecedent conditions,
than can be shown for the palatinate, with her
mills motionless, and half a million of her operatives
living upon the unwonted bread of charity. In the

West. Riding, 1850-61, the deaths were 36,202; in
1861-62, they were 35 296; and in 1862 63, they
amounted to 37,725. The last year was in excess
of both the former ones—with respect to the first
by 1,523 deaths, and to the second by 2,429 deaths.
To explain the circumstance that the deaths in

Lancashire during the win! er quirter last past
show a decline in number when compared with
the two corresponding quarters of 1861-62,

which decreemeut is not participated in by the
kingdom generally, it has been suggested that,
while England enjoyed an average amount
of health during the first term of the comparison,
Lancashire was in those two quarters moreun healthy
than usual ; and that, in the common fluctuations of
disease, " more or less improvement of the public
health was to be expected." It appears to us that
this explanation may be read backwards. The eve
of recovery from an unu,ual amount of insalubrity
in any district appears to be but a bad commence-
ment for bearing up against a period of privation.
Instead of partially explaining the unexpectedly
moderate death-rate of Lancashire by referring it
to the ordinary fluctuations of disease, the fact of
the low mortality appears rather to render
the evidence stronger that this happy result is
principally the effect of the prompt, liberal, and
tffi3ient aid which her operatives have received in
the day of their adversity.
When we analyse the returns, it is found that
considerable diversities exist among the unions.
Following Vie same line of comparison employed
in discussing the mortality of the county, the
Stockport union sLows an increased death rate of
10.8 per cent., while the neighbouring union of
Macclesfield decreased 5.4 per cent. The winter
quarter at the former place was particularly un-
healthy. Scarlet fever has been very prevalent
over the whole union.

In Lancashire the cotton manufacturing unions
which hare been less fortunate in respect
of health than their neighbours are War-
rington, Ashton-under-Lyne, °Ahem, Barton
and
on-Irwill, Chorlton, and Chorley. The increase
ent
in these districts ranges between 4
in which the decrease is equal to
8 7 per cent.
10 per cent. The more fortun-tte onesp
le are
perre
eeßolton,n t .
Rochdale, 8.0 per mint ; H ialthg
the largest decline,
Burnley, which exhibits by
Bury, 3.4 per cent. ;
distressed unions,3 6 per
te telling off in the
namely, 17.3 per cent.;
cent.;Blfkabrurn, one of the most
Manchester, 3.4 per
.cen .
;here 263 ; and last, but
number of deaths
where the the rate has fallen 6 2 per
h Preston has divided with
eat-s.
cent., or by
L ne the distinction of being the
not least,.
Ashton-tinder-
P_reisstsond,
distressed union under the present visi-
ta:t toisou. It was there, in the autumn, the very tea-
sonable alarm arose that the food-fever might have
started on its fearful career. Toe Government,
warned by the earliest symptoms, sent down a spe-
cial medical inspector to consult with the local
board of health, and with the guardians of the
poor vigorous measures were taken to relieve the
sufferers and to check the spread of the fever ; but
48 persons died from the fever in spite of all t fforts
Then the disease stopped, and has not appeared
since, or elsewhere in the district. Though Pres-
ton and Ashton stand very much upon the same
level as to the distress of the operatives, judging of
that distress by the number who have come upon
the rates in both unions, yet we observe that their
sanitary condition has been discrepant. Preston
had 188 fewer, and Ashton-under-Lyne 136
more, deaths than in 1860-61 and 1861 62. Man-
chester, Salford, and Chorlton form, in point of
feet, one vast manufacturing and commerciat
town. Hero too the labour famine has Thinned

considerable differtuces in the death•rnte. In the
firer nbmed piece there Nvero 263 leNs deaths; in the
second the mortality vris only 1 per cent. higher ;
but in Chorlton the deaths iticreasEd by 352, or
more than 9 per cent. But the figures before us
present another phase of the sanitary question--
the force of endemic causes upon mortality, irre-
spective of the economic condition of the inhsbi-

tants of any place. The whole area of our large

port upon the Mersey, which is generally called
Liverpool, is, for the purposes of registration, divided
into two distriots—Liverpool and West Derby.
These places contain a population of nearly 500,000
persons. During the cotton famine, Liverpool,
though it is the largest cotton port in Europe, has
suffered ♦ery little distress. What her merchants
have lost by the American war in one direction it is
shrewdly suspected they have made up through the
same cause in another. We should therefore hope
that the death-rate there would show at least as
favourably as in the unions where the industry of
half the people is paralysed. But what are the
facts P In 1860 61 the deaths were 12,420; in 1861-
G 2 they rose 1,600, being then 14,011 ; last year
they again rose 1,000; in exact numbers they were

15,091. In 18623, therefore, they were 217.9 per
cent. higher than in 1881, and 7.4 per cent. higher
than 1862. Contrast these figures with those we
have given above in exposition of the diminished
mortality of unions like Bolton, Rochdale, Healing.
den, Burnley, Blackburn, Manchester or Presto;
where unemployed thousands have been maintained
by charity. The Liverpool death-rate in 1862-63
was 31 in every 1,000 of the inhabitants ; this is
fifty per cent. higher than the average rate for all
England, and nearly double that which Dr. Parr
has pronounced to be the natural rats of mortality
in this country.
The low rate of mortality which lias generally
marked the cotton unions during the distress bag
been sometimes referred to the circumstance of the
mothers being able to give that necessary care to
their younger offspring, of which they are too often
deprived during full work in the factories. We
cannot venture an opinion upon the value of this
explanation, the statistical evidence to determine
the question not being at present before the public);
but at y cause acting largely upon the infant mor-
tality of our manufacturing districts must have
great influence upon the general death-rate. In.
Lincashire, in 1880, which we take as the latest
year in which the deaths by age have been pub-
lished, out of every thousand deaths 941 were those
of intuits under five years of age. If Lancashire
could be made as favourable to infant life as North
Wa.es, tbr example, where the mortality under five
mloiovauerneg yen
w palatinethosehe:e earlywould
ages. be e qua
H I
years is 312 per 1,000 deaths, the saving to the
erteo, 6th,oeono,
isora
broad
physical, social, and moral itiflo.enoes
may, under given, but not extravagant cor.ditions,
be brought into play to eheck a frightful waste of
human
We
cannotfe
but think that very many ,Jf that mul-
titude of benefactors who came with generous
celerity to the rescue of the cotton workers in
their first season of trial, will read with lively plea.
sure the figures we have here adduced to prove that
an inordinate mortality has not aggravated the dis-
tress of Lancashire. The statistics of death afford
another proof of the sufficiency of the means be-
stowed upon the hungry and the naked. There
health has smiled on charity, and charity will not
readily forget the grateful reward of her first daunt-
less struggle with famine.