The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-09 00:00:00

THE COTTON FAMINE.

PRESTON. •
For the week ended June 7th the Relief Com-
mittee at Preston have distributed 10,030 loaves of
bread, weighing 3!b. 10oz. each, or 36,3601 b. of
bread, and 14,601 quarts of soup and coffee. The
number of cases now in the visitors' books is 4,062,
comprising 16,894 persons, the increase over the
preceding week being 88 cases and 106 persons.
The total number now receiving relief exceeds that
of a month ago by 2,242, showing the rapid rate at
which the pauperisation of the community is aug•
menting. On the books of the Union, according
to the last return, are 3 974 cases of outdoor relief,
representing about 10,000 men. women, and chil-
dren. In the corresponding week of last year the
number of cases was only 1,125. The amount ex-
pended in outdoor relief is £660 2s. 11(1., in the
corresponding week of last year it was only £135
14s. ld. The number in the workhouse is 951;
in the corresponding week last year it was 578.
The return shows that there are 1,057 men and boys
labouring on the Moor for the pay which they re-
ceive from the parish. The poor-rate for Preston
in ordinary times is about 2s. 6d. or 2s. Bd. ; for
the current half-year it will be 35., and people who
think upon the subject have already made up their
minds that if the crisis lasts, as it appears likely to
do, two half-yearly rates of 4s. or ss. will be re-
quired to meet it. If that should be the case, the
effect upon the small tradesmen and owners of cot-
tage property will be crushing in the extreme; for
while, on the one hand, they are unable to obtain
their debts and rents from their customers and
tenants, they will be compelled to pay the demands
of the rate collector. The havoc created by this
state of things may be better imagined than do-
scribed. The attitude of the poor themselves is nowise
changed. They are still patient and well conducted,
and there is a notable diminution of offences as com-
pared with the number in good times. Hope that
things will mend soon sustains them in the trial.
People at a distance who imagine they can get
more cheap labour from Preston are under a mistake,
and hence the refusals which have been given to
applications from, doubtless, well-intentioned ladies
and gentlemen for domestic servants and farm
workers. The young women, the power-loom
weavers of the cotton districts, are not the class
from whom domestic servants are to be drawn. The
good wages to which they are used make them
" above" such kind of employment, while their train-
ing and habits totally unfit them for it. The other
day Sir John Swinbourne wrote to the guardians
for 20 labourers to go into Northumberland and
work as drainers, 10 hours in the day at 10s. a-
week. The guardians laughed outright at the ap-
plication, and especially at the rate of wages. First
of all, the factory operatives are unfit for such
work ; and, secondly, used to earning from 20s. to
30s. a-week in the spinning-room, they could not
be induced to submit to such a laborious employ-
ment for such small remuneration. On Friday the
cotton factories of Messrs. Bashall, at Farington, a
place three miles from Preston (which for three
months had been running half-time) stopped en-
tirely, and, as a consequence, 1,100 operatives are
thrown out of work. On Saturday morning 40 of
the number applied to the relieving-officer for as-
sistance; so that the claims upon the union are in-
creasing, and likely to increase on every hand. The
donations in aid of the relief fund, we are glad to
say, continue to keep pace with the expenditure.
The amount given during the week is about £530,
which includes £250 from the Provisional Relief
Committee in London, £lOO from Baron C. I. Ham-
bro, London, and £lO from the operative plasters of
Preston—a very creditable act on their part. Baron
Hambro expresses "deep sympathy with those
who are suffering, and his high admiration of their
intelligent and patient conduct." There is also a
sum of £4, from Price's Patent Candle Company,
near Birkenhead, part of an amount subscribed
weekly by all the workers in that establishment, at
the rate of ld. for each 10s. received in
the shape of . wages. This arrangement is
intended to operate during the crisis, and
the money so contributed is to be equally divided
among the various towns suffering the most. The
relief committee make the following report for
the week :—" The increased intensity of the distress
can only be told by those who visit the houses of
the poor, and NN Ito, in the gradual disappearance of
articles of furniture from the house of many a
hitherto well-to-do working family, as the scanty
clothing, and sadly too often in the hunger-pinched
features of those upon whom the pressure of the
distress rests most heavily, are afforded painful
evidence of the still growing privations under which
so many of our industrious fellow-townsmen are
suffering. Considerable additions have been made
to the fund during the week, chiefly by benevolent
persons at a distance. Owing to the lukewarm
manner in which some of the collectors perform the
duties they undertook, local subscriptions appear
to have almost altogether fallen off, ,although there
are many persons in the town who have not yet
contributed, simply because they have not yet been
asked."