The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-31 00:00:00

BURNLEY

Severe distress likewise prevails extensively at Burnley in
Lancashire, and in the neighbouring district, owing to the
same causes as the distress at Stockport.
In this district less efficient assistance appears to have been
afforded to the settled poor from the poor-rate; and, more-
over, many destitute persons who had migrated thither from
other parts of the country have been deterred from applying
for parochial relief by the fear of removal, in consequence of
thus becoming chargeable.
The funds provided by the law for the relief of ordinary
destitution in England, however ample they may be, can
scarcely be expected to suffice in the depressed state of Stock-
port and Burnley, inasmuch as the resources of the rate-
payers themselves are diminished in nearly the same pro-
portion in which the demands of the working-classes upon
those resources are increased.

PAISLEY

Since the month of July in last year the labouring popu-
lation of Paisley has been suffering from distress, caused by
the stagnation of trade, and the consequent failure of a large
number of firms in that borough.
This distress continued with great severity throughout the
winter, and the spring has not brought that increased de-
mand for goods which might have been expected.

Some of the more skilful weavers have indeed procured
employment, but a large portion of the population still re-
mains dependent on charity.
As many as 12,000 persons have been maintained for seve-
ral months from the contributions collected in England and
Scotland, and even in India.
The poor law of Scotland, as now administered, confers no
effectual right to relief upon men who are able to work, or
upon their families ; at present, therefore, the legal provision
for the relief of the destitute in Scotland is not applicable to
this class of persons, and even if it had been so applicable,
the pressure of so large a number of men without work must
soon have absorbed a considerable proportion of the property
in the borough.
The subscriptions raised in this country, in the county of
Renfrew, the city of Edinburgh, and other parts of Scotland,
are all expended.
Thus no legal mode of effectually relieving this mass of
destitution exists, and the charitable feelings of those con-
nected with the place have been taxed to the utmost.

I t may be added that these sufferings have for the most part
fallen on a class of workmen whose general earnings, even
in prosperous times, are insufficient to allow of any provision
for future difficulties, and that they have been borne with
patience and fortitude.
May, 1842.

We are glad to learn that the Archbishops of Canterbury
and York, the Bishops of London, Chester, and Ripon, Lords
Stanley and Russell, Sir R. 11. Inglis, &c., are members of
the manufacturers' relief committee. We are also happy to
announce that the following contributions have been already
received :—Her Majesty the Queen, £500; the Queen Dow-
ager, £300; Sir Robert Peel, Bart., £200; Sir J. Graham,
£100; the Duke of Buccleuch, £200; Sir Edward Knatch-
bull, £lOO ; the Earl of Ripon, £lOO ; the Earl of Aberdeen,
£100; Lord Stanley, £100; the Right Hon. Henry Goul-
burn, £5O; Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci, £100; Earl of Had-
dington, £lOO ; Lord Lyndhurst, £lOO ; Sir Henry Har-
dinge, £5O ; Earl Howe, £lOO ; Lord John Russell, £5O ;
Sir T. D. Acland, Bart., M.P., £5O ; Rear Admiral Bowles,
C. 8., £2O; Alderman Lucas, £26. 55.; Benjamin B. Cab-
bell, Esq., £5O.