The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-29 00:00:00

Mr. Gladstone on the Lancashire Distress.

Mr. Gladstone presided on Saturday evening at
one of the weekly entertainments at the Music
Hall, Chester, on which occasion he availed himself
of the opportunity to refer to the distress in Lan-
cashire. He said that the bulk of the cotton manu-
facture was carried on in a region comprised within
27 unions, their population being somewhat beyond
two millions, and the rated value of that portion of
their property which was subject to rates was above
five million and a half. Certain portions of the manu-
facture were, however, carried on beyond the limits
of this area, the most considerable probably being in
Glasgow; but the distress generally would be less
severe in proportion as the district was less exclu-
sive ly dependent on the cotton industry. Yet even
in these places much had been suffered and much
had been done, and as an instance of the liberality
of some of the millowners, he might mention that
in Glasgow a single firm had been supporting its
own workpeople at a charge representing £12,000
a year. Upon the whole he might probably not be
wrong in adding to the great Lancashire and Che-
shire districts one-tenth of the outlying districts so
far as contraction and loss of wages were concerned,
and from 1-10th to 1-20th so far as regarded actual
want and necessity for special aid. The number of
persons employed in cotton manufacture in the
whole county appeared to be little, if at all, short
of 400,000. Of these one-half were wholly unem-
ployed, 3.Bths, or thereabouts, were on short time,
and less than I.Bth were fully employed, The loss
of weekly wages of this population was about
£150,000, or at the rate of nearly £8,000,000 a
year—and with the loss of wages in trades directly,
subsidiary to the cotton manufacture, and depend-
ing upon its extent, it was impossible to be esti-
mated at less than £12,000,000 a year—probably a
good deal more. Such a loss told in a sensible de-
gree upon the revenue of the State, for it might be
roughly estimated that each man in this country
contributed one-eight of his income towards the
public revenue. Upon the whole, he thought the
present annual rate of loss to the revenue in conse-
quence of the cotton famine was 11 million or
thereabouts, and that the actual loss for the current
financial quarter, during which the distress had
been growing to what, as he fondly trusted, was the
maximum, would be more than one million. He
had spoken of the numbers out of employment, but
of course the numbers in want of aid were consider-
ably greater. Some of the workers were member of
families where some other members or members of
the family had other sources of support; but
against any deduction on this account a much
larger deduction has to be made on account of those
portions belonging to the families of the working
people themselves by whom no wages were earned
—the very young, the old, and those engaged in the
cares of the household. Accordingly he found that
in the 27 unions the number receiving poor law relief
was about 250,000, and the number who, without
receiving any poor law relief, received relief from
charitable funds, was 190,000, making together
440,000. To this ?limber additions were to be made
of workpeople supported by their employers them-
selves, and, of outlying districts, and taking these
additions into account, he thought they might
place the total of persons thrown into destitu-
tion by the cotton famine at half a million per-
sons. So much for the numbers of the dis-
tressed. Now let them consider what had been
and what was being done for them. When in
the summer and early autumn every week added
rapidly to the number of mills in part or entirely
closed,and want came to be extensively and severely
felt, there were two, or indeed three, temporary
obtacles which might have unduly kept down the
measure of relief. One was the difficulty of organ-
ising at short notice a machinery equal to the task
of regularly supplying
the sudden demands of thou-
sands and tens of thousands, without at the same
time incurring enormous waste, and giving encou-
ragement to fraud. The second was the noble in-
dependence of the people themselves—(applause)—
and the third was an excusable timidity which
seemed here and there to have affected the adminis-
trators of relief, boards of guardians not always
learning in a moment that an extraordinary cala-
mity required an unusual freedom in the measures
for relieving it, and some managers of charitable
funds being alarmed at comparing the amount of
the voluntary subscriptions as it then stood with
the demands of the coming winter, and not having
faith enough in the will and ability of the nation
to administer by spontaneous bounty to this great
distress. And this was to be expected, and could
not be blamed. But from such causes the pressure
of suffering was it might be feared in some cases
sharpened for a time; and a lady, blessed with large
means, and more largely blessed in disposition—
he meant Miss Burdett Coutts—having forwarded
a munificent contribution, wisely expressed her
wish that the whole of it might be laid out at once.
They must all, at all times, meet the real and essen•
tial wants of the present before reserving anything
for the future. At that time, in one of the most
distressed unions, the rate of weekly relief was not
in all more than le. ld. per head for man, woman,
and child. Intelligent benevolence had, however,
supplied both the machinery and the means, and
the average rate of out-door poor relief, which be-
fore the distress was 18. 20. per week, was now

nearly Is. tid. The funds of thk pour law were ex-
pended in the Lancashire and Cheshire district at a
weekly rate equal to more than a million

num, or at a rate of ss. per pound on rateable pro-
perty, after deducting that portion of it from which
at present rates could not be collected. The tot.l
weekly expenditure by guardians and by c0u.n..1-
tees of charity in the 27 unions was £43,547, yield-
ing to each recipient within a fraction of 2s. per
head. In addition to this the exeeutive committee
had distributed 4,734 bales of clothing; nor were
they to forget that, besides this great river of
bounty, many little streams were flawing through
private channels, can and all of them blaring con-
solation with them as they flowed. Though for the
sake of their noble-minded fellow-countrymen, they
might all wish that the rt lief afforded was mil eh
more ; yet, looking to the net ore of the ease, and the
necessity ofpresetving a relation between the state
of the independent labourer and that of the re-
ceiver of relief, the present rate ought to be re-
garded as sufficient and satisfactory; and they had
had the pleasure of hearing from the report of Mr.
Parnell that "neither himself nor the executive
committee had received any complaints from the
poor of insufficiency of relies of charitable aid." 6o
much for the amount of the relief. The prospect
was certainly no worse as to its duration. The
charitable committees in the different neighbour-
hoods were expending £25,060 a week, but the exe-
cutive committee was receiving from the 6th to the
20th of this month above £7,000 a day. The pub-
lic and general subscriptions, it would appear,
amounted to more than £1,200,000, and they might
safely . assume that the machinery in operation
would raise this to £1,500,000, whereas the stun
hitherto expended must fall short of half the amount
actually raised, so that they might look forward
with cheerfulness, in the absence of any new and
great calamity, to the remainder of the winter.
IShould the dreadful and sanguinary war which de-
' solated America and threw the surplus of its curse
upon Europe be brought to a close, a great and
early relief might be expected, but in any case the
administrators of the public bounty would, it might
be trusted, meet the spring with some considerable
funds in hand. After passing an encomium upon
the suffering operatives for the manner in which
they had borne their afßictions, he said that as they
had begun and continued he hoped they would so
persevere to the end_ They had passed from the
condition of highly paid labourers to that of re-
ceivers of relief, and this they had done with no
diminution but with an increase of respect and
honour. They would, he hoped, soon pass hack
again from the condition of receivers of relief to
that of highly paid labourers. But this they could
not do at once. A state of things was pretty cer-
tain to arrive in which the range of prices, on
which wages must depend, would ho such as to
enable their employers, or such of them as
only bent but did not break before the storm,
to offer low wages, but not such as to enable
them to offer high ones. To acce_pt these low
wages—to commence again the workman's career
on a reduced and contracted footing—would be
a new form of trial. Might they meet it as duty,
and not as pride, would prompt them, and might it
be their last. (Cheers.)

JAPAN.

We have received the following from our corre-
spondent at Hong Kong.

A letter from Yokoriama of the 21st October,
says :

"The Government of his Majesty the Tycoon of
Japan issued a notification at Jeddo on the 19th
October to the effect that all Daimios or Princes
(excepting only those of the blood Royal, and also
those intrusted with the direction of affairs) should
respectively withdraw to their Principalities.
" Henceforth the Gooernment made it no longer
compulsory on them to reside at Jeddo; they will
be called up once in three years to the metropolis
for the space of 100 days.
" The Princes of Awarri, Mito, and Kishni, being
of the blood Royal, they will reside at Jeddo by
tarns of one year each, one remaining while the
other two are permitted to withdraw to their an-
cestral territories.

~A further notification has been issued imposing
sumptuaryrestrictions, and recommending economy
both in clothing and living to the people of Japan,
high and low.

"A brother of the late Tycoon has been appointed
Prince Regent since the demise of the late Emperor
up to the present crisis. He belonged to the priest-
hood, but owing to his high consanguinity, coupled
with his great talents, he has been summoned to
this important post.

"N.8.--It is impossible to assign the true mo-
tives for such sudden and radical changes, but it
does not appear as though the Government of the
Tycoon was much stronger than has hitherto been
conceded. It is thought possible that greater libe-
rality to foreigners may follow these events, and
that a variety of restrictions hitherto imposed upon.
native traders may be gradually removed."

(No. 3.)
INCH L FULCRUM OF ' ARCHIMEDES.
ACKERLEY V. DALTON, TURNER, & OTHERS.
Marlbro'-street, late Coal-hole, Dog-set'ng grievance, with
its L'Eur ska Gladiatorial Toga'rry defence.
The Telegraph of Thursday states that Capt. Ackerley
claimed £5 fine and costs, from defendants (Dalton, Tur-
ner, and wife, servants of George Harrow), on their being
bound over to keep the peace six months, under £lO
penalty, for misdemeanour, with wilful dog offence agains the person, with intent to do injury by "canine agency,"
on Sundays below stairs and week-nights above. The dis-
crepancy in Police reports, induces us to refer to this ap-
parent case of persecution against the plaintiff—(the sup-
porter of the Anglo-American ' Income tax' Chief, Peter
Basquet, 11f years)—for holding under his Coal Hole
County court Final judgment on 1842-B's double-rent
lease, now a 20-yrs title, which checkmates ' the Woods
and Forests' 1586 Chiliarcher * of St. Mic. Cowper's Corn-
hill gold-key lessees' wish, by Ouster le maul to regain a
Primer Seisin by getting the Captain to recognize an in-
verted tenantcy by their lessee Batchelor building-in his
Coal -hole basis without Party-wall, with intent at steam.-
engine boiler HEAT—th effect cold-draft ejection.—so
Tomb. } 'Think !—every day to be thy last, Chandos.
For when night-sleep comes—Life is past.'
The papal 4'29 Metropolis Police Act, 3 Wm. 4, cap. 19,
§ 15, 39, 44—gives £5 fine, and is repeated in 1861 Act, on
" Offences against the person, &c., 24-25 Vict., cap. 100,
sec. 4, 42, 67, 77—Garotters and Chloroformists," on mis-
demeanour conviction, with £5 fine, recoverable against the
Stipendiary justice—therefore in homage to our readers we
refer to this Clapham Atkins case, (of City beam and scale
Sydney-like title, 13 Hen. 8, in 1835 standard act), wherein
the Captain (& brother Chamberlayne, by reason of the
papal P boy Edw. 6th in-valid City grants, at age 14), as
Montague kin executor of privy council by '35 act,
being sworn trustee of Brandon and Southwark's Bethieni Hospital Estates, now on St. James's Hall, and Eliz, Park-
lodge, Ormond-yard, and 5, Swallow-street, as the people's
land, under no Queen's Church head assumption. t
*Russ-Polish Rothschild took out Troy-weight meter from
the Exchequer for Pope's mitre-and-key mint in 1838 ?
whence, by his City charter, 26 Ed. 3 ? the Mayor Ross,
M.P., was mock presented in November to Indian Peter,
as Constable of the Tower—Angl° Micmac flag unionist.
t On the Luther 3ty of 21st July, 1521, by Leo X and
Emp. Charles V, for Paduan intermediate supremacy in
the land—Sydney was appointed the Archer -Is standard
inch bearer. In like manner, by 1831's Co-partner Act,
No. 54, for 2-3 Will. 4, caput-81, 92, 1832, for Russian
Dutch Loan guarantee—on Submission of the Clergy and
restraint of appeals to Rome, on lack of justice—names 25
Hen. 8, c 19 and 8 Eliz. c 5, for marine causes—whence,
on 1825 Holy Alliance of Kings' abolition—the Greek
Peru rota-crown Protector' Lieu-Tenant Ackerley, R.N.,
as King John's kin trust, was sworn-in as supreme State
pivot, at Worcester's Mausoleum-Ca. in January, 1837 by
Gold stick Archer-Wm. 4—wh,ose daughter married the
Captain's nephew, by the 2nd branch of Dartmouth's
Slaney le Fleming Chamberlayne, in Leicester Coke, and
Hungate Shelley de Lisle Sydney as Fitzclarence bar'd in.
heraldry, like Eaton-hall Grey Egerton, by Somerset'
half-cast.

The same malicious isolating influence appears to have
closed against him the doors of Junior United Service Club,
on his £4,000 Co-burn discovery, and United Service Mu-
seum membership, for holding to his official duties, and
cause of his cruel imprisonment at Bath, Tothill, and
Merthyr Tydvil, without crime.
December 29, 1862.

The Queen intends to spend the 10th of Feb-
ruary, the anniversary of her Majesty's wedding-day, in
comparative seclusion, at Osborne. On the following day
the Court will leave Osborne for Windsor.—Court Journal.
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too often the mistake is mortal. This mischance can never
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for whether tho symptoms arise from inflammation, colds, or
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~~~~~

\.ta ~ ,r

1111.

LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. 29, 1862.

It still continues a matter of absolute uncertainty
as to what Prince may be eventually recognised as
the new Greek Sovereign. England, in spite of the
enthusiastic unanimity of feeling manifested by the
people of that revolutionised country, has decided
already upon throwing her cause in completely
with the two other contracting Powers : with
France, that is to say, and with Russia. A Collec-
tive Note, dated on the 12th inst. at Athens, and
signed conjointly by the three ambassadors, i.e.,
the ambassadors respectively of St. James's,
St. Petersburg, and the Tuileries— SCARLETT, BLOU
DOFF, and BUNSEN—has already intimated to the
Provisional Government the accordant recognition
by the contracting powers, that they are each
and all bound, nay that they are solemnly pledged,
to one another that no member of the Imperial
and Royal Families actually reigning over
those States can accept or wear the Crown
of Greece. Consequently upon which under-
standing, the Greeks would have to look in vain
for any acceptance of the throne vacated by the de-
parture of OTHo, for any acceptance of that throne

by Prince ALFRED of England, by Prince NAPO-
LEON of France, or by the Russian Grand Duke
LEUCHTENBERG. The first and third of these
great personages, in point of fact, are specified by
name in the Collective Note r eferred to as
prohibited by the agreement formally en-
tered into by the Contracting Powers
from yielding to the solicitations of fortune,
if proffered (as it has certainly been proffered of
late to the younger) in the guise of the volunteered
allegiance of the Greek population.

In becoming a party to this distinct and
positive arrangement England has been mani-
festly guided by considerations less of ambi-
tion than of prudence. Her consent to the
nomination of H. R. H. the Prince ALFRED as
the successor of King OTIIO to the throne of Greece
would have involved, it was at once clearly mani-
fest to the more sagacious of our diplomatists, either
an estrangement from or an open rupture, sooner or
later, with the other two contracting Powers: the
two dominant empires, situated, the one to the east,
the other to the west, of the European Continent.
Recognising this as the all but inevitable result
of any re-union by England to the loudly expressed
wishes of the Greeks, it would be difficult to assert
that the decision arrived at by Her Britannic
MAJESTY'S Ministers, as the responsible advisers of
Her MAJESTY, was dictated by other than the
wisest and the most sagacious and rational consi-
derations. This we would have understood
however simply, in reference to their hav-
ing resolved upon declaring in the name
of England and upon behalf of the English
people and of the English SOTEREIGN, the
distinct and, as we believe, the absolutely un-
paralleled tribute of homage and admiration for
our political institutions visible in the spontaneous
offer by all Greece of the throne of Greece, of the
Crown of Greece, of the loyal devotion
of the people of Greece to the second son of our
beloved SOVEREIGN.

Insomuch, however, as the declining of this
honour has been accompanied, or, at any rate
14 distinctly asserted to have been mom-
1401ed by the bold intimation of the cession
of the lonian Islands by England to Greece—
that, we
dl rent
it, is a matter altogether
of
reli
character, and one requiring to be
scanned aue,
rntinized in an entirely different
spirit. Itedmit,i
first utely appears upon the face of it, at
the very
has,
morally ;7 doubtful whether England
Z.: the power and the right
to resign a Protectorate
couaded to her by the deli-
berate agreement of ail the
in 1815 upon the signigh:eat Powtrs of Europe
Vienna. The rdlng very wo • g of the Treaty of
of that
solemn trust
once 48 evidence
may be accepted and recognised at
of its sacred and binding chz,,,,er
• It was a D
tcctorate—it is a Protectorate—not a Saver ro-
one consequently that cannot elisnt
The trust is Y.
lightly
be resigned. It is one that cannot in any Way be
resigned by any independent decision arrived at by
the English Government. Tho resignation of the
Protectorate hitherto exercised by that Government
ever since the general European Treaty of
1915 cannot be resolved upon by the Cabinet Minis-
ters of the Crown, even if empowered so to do by
the Imperial Parliament. The validity of the act
could only be completely recognised upon a collec-
tive agreement among the Five Great Powers.
Then, and then only, could England, in honour, be
rid of her responsibility. It appears,consequently,
to say the very least of it, premature to talk as the
telegrams are doing now, so very confidently
and explic!tly about the secession of the

lonian Islands to Greece, or even about
the determination of England to deliver
them up. The trust may be inconvenient, it is
true. That it has long been inconvenient there
can be little doubt whatever. Nay, it would
clearly be matter of congratulation to our Govern-
ment if they were well rid at last of a re-
sponsibility in every respect so very vexatious
of its kind as this one of the lonian Pro-
tectorate. Nevertheless, it should manifestly
be an inexorable stipulation beforehand with
France, with Russia, even with Austria, that if
transferred from the independent protectorate of
England for absorption into the sovereignty of
Greece, the lonian Islands should be secured in
the latter character or position, namely, as con-
stituting thenceforth an integral part and parcel
of the Greek kingdom.

Let the agreement of the European Powers
to the relinquishment by England of her
Protectorate over the lonian Islands be
first of all assured—let France, and Russia,
and Austria, and the rest of the Powers of
Europe stand pledged with England to the
lasting recognition of the fact that those lonian
Islands constitute a recognised province of the
Kingdom of Greece—and then, but not earlier,
the English Ministry having been previously em-
powered by the British Parliament to open
negotiations leading to these among other satis-
factory results—may talk about their readiness to
hand over the lonian Islands to Greece. As mat-
ters at present stand it is seriously to be hoped
that the noble earl, her MAJESTY'S Foreign Secre-
tary, has in no way been precipitate in pledging
him, olf to Any Soul ocentoo of pr vc.oo al 8
to this end, even though it may have been
expressed with diplomatic ambiguity con-
ditionally ! The secession of the lonian
Islands to Greece, or rather the yielding up of our
Protectorate over those Islands, with a view to
their subsequent absorption into the Kingdom of
Greece, ought to be left, as we trust and shall yet
believe that it has been left, by Earl RUSSELL, by
the PALMERSTON Cabinet, for discussion in the
two Houses of Parliament immediately after the
assembling of the Legislature early in the now fast
approaching month of February.
Meanwhile pending those inevitable discussions
in the Lords and the Commons of England, it can-
not but be interesting to cast a wistful glance of
retrospect over the recorded votes of the
Greek People in the recent plebiscite. For
AMEDEE, for Prince ALFRED or GARIBALDI,
for ALFRED or ABDEL KADER, for M'MAHON,
one vote each was recorded. For the Count de
FLANDERS, and for ALFRED or the Duke
D'AUMALE three votes respectively. Seven for the
Duke of LEUCHTENBURG. Twelve for Prince
ALFRED or Death ! Ninety for Prince
ALFRED or the Republic. For Prince ALFRED,
simply and solely, and without any alter-
native, as King of GREECE, NINE THOUSAND AND
EIGHTY-FOUR votes were given in eagerly by the
population. Such a tribute has never before been
offered to a remote and apparently alien race. It
is hard even now to believe that it has been offered
in vain after all.

The accounts now published of the great battle
on the Rappahanock will be scanned with interest.
Fredericksburg has in consequence of it become a
name which will not be forgotten in American his-
tory, for, whatever the ultimate fortune of the war,
it will be known as the spot cn which two vast
armies of the divided old Union fought one of their
greatest battles. It was not a fair stand-up fight
in the open field, however ; it was the attack and
defence of a series of the strongest works. The
position of the Confederates behind Fredericksburg,
an amphitheatre of numerous hills, partly
wooded, is one of considerable natural strength,
and by the mismanagement of the War-effice,
BURNSIDE was not enabled, as soon as he had
arrived at Fredericksburg, to cross the River,
and make his attack at once. Hence the
Confederates had had ample time to strengthen
nature by art; and the hardworking veterans of so
many Southern battles, labouring with all the
energy of confidence in Generals of proved ability,
had really made the defences almost impregnable.
Their first and outer line was the rivet this, how-
ever, it must have been well known, could be
passed as rivers always have been by armies. Still
the fighting there would delay the advance, and
increase the time for full preparation, and it was
evidently thus used. The grand defence was in the
rear of Fredericksburg.
It seems BURN SIDE was so fully aware of the
difficulties of the route to Richmond by Acqnia
Creek as his base of operations, and through Frede-
ricksburg, that his own judgment was distinctly
opposed to it. But again the fatal necessity of po-
litical considerations compelled a Northern General
to obey the behests of civilians. The evil seems in-
curable. Non-military electors seem unable to com-
prehend the necessity of delay in war. Treason
and treachery begin to be whispered. Generals
must advance to action cith the knowledge that if
they do not they shall make enemies of friends, and
that, if they do, the enemies before them in the field
will compel them to disappoint those friends.
BURNSIDE submitted to the political necessity.
The probability was, that he must sacrifice thou-
sands of men to prove to his own friends, by facts,
what he could not convince them of by reasoning;
the possibility was, a bare one, that he might succeed,
and obtain a victory where he looked for a defeat.
He made therefore the best arrangements he could.
He forced, as he doubtless expected to do, a passage
of the river without much difficulty, and found
himself on the 12th on Fredericksburg, ready to
commence on the 13th the grand attack on the
works behind it.

One reads with melancholy interest the story
of each division of the Federal army marching up
to the Balaklava and Inkerman in the hills of Fre-
dericksburg. It was, except that it was infantry
work, most like the light cavalry feat at Balak-
lava, or, most of all, like the attacks of the Russians
on Kars, with the grand difference, however, that
to starve the defenders was out of the question.
With the exception of General Franklin's division,
which had more opportunity for manceuvring on
the extreme Federal left, the Federal troops seemed
to move forward but to be mowed down. There was
no want of courage. But an instance or two of not
more than temporary disorganisation occurred ; they
were resolved to carry the murderous batteries, but
the batteries were not to be carried by any courage.
They were too well placed, and the evidence of
Confederate skill in their construction, and of
the steadiness of Norther-1-r eourav, is equally
\
shown by the number of killed and wounded.
Nothing
appears to have been left undone on
ether side, that brave and able men could do. The
result only Showed that the military man was
right; and
derationnls y might be that however urgent political consi-
at Washington they ought not
military
reaatstonsem in military matters.
The aspect of this
thing but encouraging to the Federals The last
pt on Richmond is any-
.
attack failed within half a score
miles of the city.
This one has failed at the dist
%nee of 60 miles.
A short time ago the communications from the
South showed that a double attack at least was ex-
; parallel with
pected. It was assumed as certain that