The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-26 00:00:00

I. than it was a week ago. At the latter place, only three
• ont of thirty mills are working full time.
In the Rochdale and Middleton district, matters become
worse daily. There are 186 mills, employing about 24,000
• 3 lands; out of which, 14 mills, employing 1,685 persons,
are stopped ; 80 mills, employing 12,000 hands, are work-
ing three and four days a week; and 92 mills, em-
ploying nearly 10,000 hands, are at present working full
time ; but many of these expect to commence short time
or stop altogether after the present week. The other trades
in the district are in a very depressed condition.
In Blackburn and its neighbourhood trade is every day
more depressed. Of twenty-seven mills, employing
about 12,000 persons, eight, usually giving work to 3,709
hands, are entirely stopped ; nine, employing nearly 6,000
hands, are going three days per week ; six, employing
about 2,000 hands, working four and five days a week ;
and three employing 412 hands, working full time. In a
circuit of six miles round Blackburn there is double this
number of mills, the great majority of which are either
closed or going short time. The operatives in this dis-
trict were never known to be in a worse condition, and
they bear their sufferings with much patience. The hand.
loom weavers are in full employment, but their wages are
miserably low. The calico printers at Accrington,
' Clitheroe, &c., have very little to do at present, and in
some places are entirely without work.
, In the township of Oldham 20 mills, employing upwards
of 4,000 hands are going full time ; 39, employing 7,500
hands, working short time ; and 6. employing 1,200
stopped. A report was circulated that the authorities of
Oldham had considered it necessary to swear in a number
of special constables, being apprehensive of the conse-
quences of a general strike. This report we believe is an
unfounded one, although a good deal of excitement pre-
vails in the district, with regard to the expected general
cessation of factory work.
At Ashton, the operative spinners, &c., employed at a
majority of the mills in the town and neighbourhood, in
pursuance of a resolution to which we have of late fre- •
quently alluded, have at length ceased working, and there
1 seems at present little probability of their commencing
work again. A meeting was held to-day at Dukinfield,
in which it was stated that nine out of the twelve mills
represented were now stopped, and that the three others
would be closed this evening. Everything as yet remains
perfectly quiet, although we believe the authorities have
taken precautions against any possible disturbance ; a
contingency which we trust is not likely to occur.
At Stockport, a meeting of factory operatives was held - :'...,-e4.
last night, and a resolution passed in favour of a total "
cessation of work, to take place immediately. We have
heard that two large mills in Stockport have stopped
working to-day.
At Warrington, a public meeting has been held to take
into consideration the distress at present existing there,
caused by the stoppage of the factories, and to devise
means for the relief of the unemployed operatives: At
the close of the meeting it was announced that subscrip-
tions to the amount of £5OO had been received.
Last week was the most gloomy week for ten or twenty
miles round Manchester that has been witnessed for a
great number of years. The inhabitants in every place
are much alarmed for fear of a general outbreak, but up
to this time, operatives bear things very patiently. Trade
had never a worse appearance.

* The following was our contemporary's statement :
Operatives in the Mills in Manchester.
Full time. Short time. Out.
24,317
23,200
18,516

Oct. 5

CAUSE OF THE PANIC.

(From the Morning Herald.)

The " panic," as the Chronicle truly says, has been.
" made by Act of Parliament ;"—and the cause and oper-
ation of it are as clear as daylight. The London Gazette
of Friday last informs us that the " notes issued" by the
Bank of England, were,
On the 16th of October, 1847
And, by referring to the like publicition of
last year, we find that the " notes issued,"
on the 17th of October, 1846, were
The reduction, therefore, in this one item
alone, is no less than..
But this is only the first item. The circulation of the
provincial banks, which, last year, was probably ten or
eleven millions, is now, we apprehend, scarcely eight
millions ; and every failure that is reported produces a
further reduction. So that the actual amount of all the
paper afloat is, most likely, quite ten millions below the
average of the last three years.
This, however, is not all. The Bank may tell us that
it has issued £21,989,600 in notes ; but it cannot tell us
how large or how small a proportion of these are in circu-
lation. No one who observes what is going on, can doubt
that the various bankers, both in London and in the pro-
vinces, are keeping by them, for their own safety, at least
twice the stock of Bank-of-England-paper which was
held by them last year ! Here, then, is a further re-
duction of several millions, from the active circulation of
the country. And, lastly, must be mentioned, the com-
mercial bills of exchange, which, in ordinary times, are
as good as money,—passing freely from hand to hand ;
but which, by the present exigency, are rendered wholly •
useless for currency. In 1846 a man would almost as
willingly receive a good bill of exchange as a bank-note,
in settlement of an account. In 1847, for money objects,
the bill of exchange is useless to him. How many mil-
lions of useful currency have thus been practically
extinguished, it is not easy to say.

28,741,645