The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-20 00:00:00

FORMER STATE of LANCASHIkIE

TO THE EDITOR OF TEE SUN.
Sue—ln the leading article of yesterday's paper,
you asked, what would Lancashire be without the
cotton manufacture? and replied to your own question
by observing that, before its introduction, Lanceshire
was the poorest, or lowest, county in the kingdom.
Now, Sir, just allow me to correct the mistake you
have made. I have known Lancashire many years
and can state with truth, that it was much happier
and wealthier before the introduction of the cot-
ton manufacture than it has ever been since ,
at least, if the wealth and happiness of a
County, is to be estimated by the prosperous condition
of the people generally, rather than by the accumula-
tion of enormous riches in the hands of a few indivi-
duals. There is no country to which nature has been
more bountiful. It had once treble mountains and
lovely valleys, happy, meandering streams and verdant
rye idows ; whilst the healthiness of the climate, and
the fruitfulness of the soil, were apparent in the robust
frames of the people. The people themselves were dis-
tinguishel above those of most other coenfes for their
honesty, industry, and independence ; crime of any kind
was very rare, and robbery and burglary were in many
parts quite unknown ; whilst the smiling well-eared-for
cottages marked tl c provident character of their in-
mates. Alas! this agreeable state of things has passel
away ; and what has the cotton manufacture given us
in its steal ? It. has destroyed the level of domestic
happiness and industry, and created in lieu thereof two
violent extremes ; the one, exhibiting the most apalling
wretchedness ; the other, the utmost profusion of luxury
and riches. The fair face of the country, every where
disfigured with large temples to Moloch, and rows of
wretched dweltegs, void of every trace of domestic
economy, and filled with squalid emaciated beings,
sunken and degenerate in body and mind, aliens from
every country, the victims of incessant toil, without
reaping any reward for their labour that can awaken
the ties of nature and affection for the country in which
they Eve, and spree ling with fatal surety the vices inse-
parable from the habits of such a condition ; having, at
the same time, the melancholy consciousness that they
for whose interest this misery is endured, and into whose
hands the fruit of their labour passes, the lordly capita.
lists of the manufacturing districts, will abandon them
on the first appearance of adversity to the generous
benevolence, of the Poor-law Commissioners. In short,
Sir, as far as Lancashire is concerned, the cotton manu-
facture has debased and impoverished the labouring
classes of the country. And with respect to its affect
upon the nation, it furnished the means to a profligate
and extravagant Minister for carrying on an uujust war
against the liberties of another people, enabl:d him to
contract an enormous debt, has since supported the
extravagance of every Government, and will prove the
ruin of our country. What virtues have sprung from
it ? Was Hampden a cotton manufacturer ? was Mil-
ton ? was Algernon Sidney ? What name is there
dear to England as associated with its rights and
liberties that can be connected with this blight
upon our country ? I could wish, in your political ar-
ticles, that you would assume a higher tone of morals,
and teach something more promotive-of the welfare of
mankind, than that it is the duty of the Legislature to
encourage the accumulation of riches in the few, and
the punishment of poverty in the many. But I know
my sentiments are so little in accordance with those of
the party for whom you write, that I do not expect my
letter will be admitted into your columns, which are re-
served for such bombastic productions as, abounding
in vague generalities, are meant " but to flatter
the ear and to deceive the heart." I am sure
you must often write in opposition to your good feel-
ings ; for you must be sensible of the truism, that whilst
a nation is poor it is virtuous and victorious, but riches
bring with them corruption and decay. Even the rail-
roads, which you mention arose out of the benefits of the
cotton manufacture, may be adduced as one of the most
striking instances of its pernicious effects upon society,
for men are now doomed by it to such perpe
tual labour that they cannot even afford the
time requisite for a journey, unless conveyed swifter
than the wind. My only inducement to address
you has been the vindication of my native county, for
which I still entertain the greatest regard, and which I
have been compelled to leave with feelings of the greatest
regret.—l remain, Sir,
Your obedient humble servant,
A LANCASHIRE MAN.
Bath, March 13.

[Our Correspondent is quite mistaken in supposing
that we bare any reluctance to publish his letter, further
than at this period the demands on our space are
so great, that vre cannot find room for all the communi-
cations sent to us. At the same time, we cannot allow
our Correspondent to suppose that we admit all his
statements to be unanswerable. He must be a very
old man to remember any thing of Lancashire before the
cotton manufacture was introduced there, which was
prior to the year 1770, and, therefore, we place very
little reliance on his complaints,iwhich are based on no
facts. What it might have been without the cotton mane-
facture, may be conjectured from the present condition
of Wilts, Sussex, and other exclusively agricultural coun-
ties, which the proportion of paupers to the whole
population is 14 and 13 per cent., while, in Lancashire,
much as the people are now distressed, it is only seven.
Our Correspondent's head is fuller of history than pre-
sent facts. The age demands no Hampden, no Milton,
no Algernon Sydney, and they are accordingly not
found either in our manufacturing or our rural districts.
The agricultural counties are as guiltless of producing
such meo, as the most crowded part of Lancashire.
What the world wants is a means of feeding the ever-
growing population, and that has been supplied to a
greaLextent by the ingenuity of men who have flourished,
if they were not born, in the cotton manufacturing dis-
tricts : Watt and Arkwright, in a great measure belong
to them. The late Sir Robert Peel was a cotton-manu-
facturer, and whatever honour the son reflects on the
English nation, must, in part, be reflected back on the
means by which his father obtained his fortune. Gas
lighting, that universal benefit, originated in a cotton-mill.
But the great merit of our cotton-mills is, that they
have clothed cheaply, cleanlily, and comfortably, half
the world, and made Great Britain to that extent the
benefactress of nations. Compared to this great, this
vast blessing, all that Hampden, Milton, and Sydney
ever did for the human race sinks into comparative in-
significance. Nor are the secrets of science unrevealed
to the manufacturers of cotton. Their practice has
brought more knowledge to light than all the minute
experiments of Wollaston and Davy. Amongst them,
let us add, to show that wo depreciate not there great
men, Dalton, one of the greatest chemical philosophers
that ever lived, has found a home and an appropriate
sphere for the exercise of his ingenuity. We admit to
our Correspondent that the same cotton manufacture
which has conferred such blessings on foreigners has
not been equally advantageous to our own people. If
he seeks the reason, he will find it in our Corn and
ether scoundrel laws,!and in many of our institutions, ex-
pressly framed to plunder and oppress the many for the
benefit of the few. The deep-seated poverty, and the
miss of degradation which he and we alike mourn
over, are not caused by the cotton manufacture, but by
the laws which have prevented the thousand ingenious
contrivances connected with that from bearing their ap-
propriate fruit.--En. Sun.]