The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-06 00:00:00

You take m
When you do take the means whereby yI l
live.
SHAKSPER.E.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Bolton-le-Moors, March 2, 1840.
SlR—Believing much ignorance exists as to the ac-
tual condition of the manufacturing population of this
country. I wish through the medium of your valuable
journal, to furnish for public consideration a short ac•
count of the state of Bolton and the neighbourhood;
compiled from careful personal observation.
This town, as its name implies, is situated in what
was, previously to the introduction of the cotton manufac-
ture, in 1773, a sterile, dreary, waste of moor land, in
fact, a complete wilderness. At that time the popula-
tion was .5,800. In 1801 it had increased to 17,400.
In 1821 it was 31,200. In 1831 it was 41,19,5, and
at the present moment is probably .50,000. 'This neigh-
bourhood is, I believe, a more than average specimen of
Lancashire in general ; as, in addition to our staple
trade of cotton-spinning and weaving, both by hand and
power, we have large and noted establishments of mill-
wrights, engineers, foundrymen, and machine makers.
The fancy muslins of Bolton are well known. The ma-
nufacture of counterpanes and Marseilles quilts is, I
believe, exclusively confined to Bolton. There are also
extensive paper works ; and by far the greater part of
the bleaching of the entire cotton trade is performed in
the immediate vicinity. Perhaps there is scarcely a
town in the county, except Manchester, which affords
such a variety of employment, not confined to any age
or sex, nor one which is so little liable to be seriously
affected by derangement of any single branch of our
foreign or domestic trade.
I need not state that one effect of the sudden
springing up of a town of this magnitude has been
to raise the value of the surrounding land amaz-
ingly. I have nsade extensive personal inquiries
on this point, and have now in my possession
a list of some score of farms, within a circuit
of ten miles, from which it appears that during
the last fifty years the rental of land in this district
has been more than quadrupled. The surplus popula-
tion of the rural districts has also been largely drafted
to Bolton, and this has been an additional advantage
to the neighbouring landowners, by relieving them from
the burthen of supporting a population which they were
unable to employ. In making a return to the Factory
Commissioners, a few years ago, I found that, of the
persons in my own employment, not one in three above
twelve years of age had been born within ten miles of
Bolton.

keepers, are incalculable, but they must amount to many
thousand pounds. The pawnbrokers' shops are stowed
full of the clo:hing, furniture, and even bedding of the
destitute poor. Fever is also prevalent Mr. S. R
Kay, one of the medical officers of the Union, and a
young practitioner of great promise, lately took the in-
fection of malignant typhus, and last week fell a victim
to his harassing duties. He had latterly worked almost
night and day. A short time ago 500 persons were re.
'loved by the Poor-law Guardians in one day, in amount
varying from six to eighteen pence per head per week.
In many cases two or three families are crowded into
one house. In one case seventeen persons were found
in a dwelling about five yards square. In another,
eight persons, with two pairs of looms and two beds,
in a cellar six feet under ground, and measuring
four yards by five. There are scores of families
with little or no bedding, having literally eaten it,
pawned, or sold it for food 1 The out-door relief to the
poor is three times greater in amount than on the
average of the three years ending 1838. South of
Bolton, four miles, a large spinning establishment, giv-
ing employment to 800, and subsistence to 1,300 per-
sons, has been entirely stopped for nine months. The
proprietor has upwards of 100 cottages empty or paying
no rent, and although possessed of immense capital,
finds himself unable to continue working his mills to
advantage. Entering Bolton from Manchester, another
mill, requiring 180 hands, has been entirely standing
for 18 months. In the centre of the town another,.
250 hands, stopped several weeks. North of Bolton,
one mile, a spinning, manufacturing, and bleaching esta-
blishment, on which 1,200 persons were dependent for
subsistence, has been entirely standing four months.
Several machine-makers and engineers are now em-
ploying one to two hundred hands less than usual, at
wages varying from fifteen to forty shillings a-week. A
public subscription amounting to nearly two thousand
pounds has just been raised to mitigate, in same degree,
the sufferings of the destitute poor; in fact, to deal out
a scanty pittance, just sufficient to keep them from ac•
tual starvation, to a body of workmen, who possess
perhaps greater skill and industry than any popula-
tion of similar numbers on the face of the globe ; but
who are forbid, by the inhuman and fiendish policy of
our landowners, to exchange the produce of their labour
for food in the open market of the world ! !
I feel, Sir, if I proceed, I shall soon grow intem-
perate, and therefore conclude by suggesting to the
Corn-law Repealers of each manufacturing district, to
publish such facts as have come to their knowledge, or
which they can collect, bearing on the question,
for I feel quite confident, when the public mind has
once obtained a clear and distinct view of the actual
workings and distressing effects of these laws, their
doom will be sealed.