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 members 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 number 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 is. Id. 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-
was now fore the distress was 18. 20. per week,