Year: 1862

)


The London Times has been sending special
correspondent into the manufacturing districts to
ascertain the truth in regard to the suffering and
privation there, growing out of stoppage of
trade, consequent upon the American war, the
loss OF the cotton supply, &c His first report
appeared in the Times of the 26th ult From
him we learn that


In Preston alone there are 23, 900 persons re-
I cefsias paroehial and charitable relief The
population is only SO ,000 so that more than one
fourth are STEPPED to the lips in misery In addi-
tlon to the 23 900, there thousands endeavor-
ing to subsst half wages, or less than one half


Halttlme does not imply halfpay, for the use of
Surat cotton renders it impossible for the hands
to earn their customary wages The amount lost
to the operatives by the failure of employment is
calculated at el3, 900 week. The slight COM
pensatien to the suffering amounts to little more
than FL 600 week; SO that in point of fact, 81
is made to do the duty of el3.


Gin one court found poor woman with three
children whose husband had three days parish
work and an extra relief of 3s., in all S. week
for the fve All their furniture was gone but
table and two chairs and all FIVE slept in one bed,
which was placed in dark hole with not ray of
hight finding its way into it-such as We should
hardly think too good to store Goals n All their
clothes had been pawned, and most bitterly of all
did the poor woman lament good black suit of
her husbond which was sin" for los, and which
they could never hope to "redeem,"


Another family of six people, in the same
court had to live Oil IS week, that is Is. I'd per
week or 2id. day for each.


In another house, | saw sight which will be
before my eyes for many day to come. 1t was
little low stone-foored room, its only furniture
table, stool and bed On the bed was stretched
an Object could not tell whether it was man
or a woman-worn to the bone very skeleton
in fact, her body covered with putrid sores, with
not rag on her, literally naked but for the coarse
sheet which was spread ncr The bed on
which she lay rough brown sacking stuffed
with handful Of straw. She had lain there
don't know how long; her husband had lain there
before her and died on the same ped She was
the mother Of two girls, factory operatives, who
earned or relieved with few shngs-l
forget how many, for | own ! was too much
shocked at what I to listen to figures


Given among somewhat better class the suf-
fering is hardly less extreme, and sad were the
tales to which [ had to listen of the gradual
descent from comfort to utter desttution. In one
little house, huddled all together, was family of
eleven, all Of which had been twenty eight weeks
out of work, and for fifteen of these they had ex-
listed on something less than Is. per head. The
Relief Committee had just raised their pittance to
los. for the eleven. Before the bad times the
family earnings had been about e3 l5s., and they
had had to part with nearly all their furniture


A man, his wife, three daughters and two sons
had only one bed among them, and only dirty
blanket and dirty quilt, one to be under and the
other them. Of the childen slept on
the bare boards.


But perhaps the strongest illustrations of the
distress actually chargeable the present crisis
the cases of respectable men who have hitherto
kept themselves in comfort and endeavored to pro-
vide for old age and infrmity. There was no
difficulty in finding plenty Of these. At one
house l visited young couple, not long married, |
who between them had earned e2 week. They
had both been out of work for some time, and
when their savings were exhausted they had at last
applied to the parish Their present income was
exactly 5s. Cd. week, out of which their rent
was 2s. I'd, leaving them 3s. week for sub
slstence.


'Another young couple had Is. a week from the
Relief Committee; but living with their parents,
they had no rent to pay. ln the next house there
were four grown-up people living, whose united
incomes amounted to 9s., out Of which they had
to pay Is rent.


"Little further on / came on an overseer with
a family of five children. His salary had been
39s. week. and though he had been out of work
more than a twelvemonth, he had managed to
struggle on until about fortnight ago, when, all
his resources being exhausted, he had been CON-
PEELED to apply for relief, and receiving,
from one source or another, about 9s. week.


"An old woman and two daughters, both Of
them over twenty-oEe years of age-one employed
half time, the other receiving relief-had among
them As. Cd. week.


A highly respectable reed d-hook maker-whose
wife cried bitterly she told me her story-s
earning, with the aid of one of her boys, Is.
week, which has to keep four of them, by dredg-
ing stones from the bed of the river. They had
pawned all their clothes and much of their furni
tnre before applying to the Relief Committee


parish and half time, when distributed amongst all
the claimants, amounts only to Is. I'd. a head per
week. Many, of course, are living for less The
Is. Cd. is not given in money, the Relief Commit
tee distributing their bounty in bread, soup and
coffee"


The cotton question is discussed BY the London
Daily News in despondng spirit. 1t says:


"The supply of American cotton is rapidly be-
coming extlnguished, and these exports have con-
sequently risen during the past week no less than
4d to 3D. per pound. For the future American
cotton, as being quite "fancy" article, will com
mand 'fancy" price-indeed, just such price
the limited number of holders may choose to
demand for it. Accordingly an interesting revo-
luton is taking place in the manufacture. Amer
ican cotton passes out of consumption, and the
small quantity remaining will be husbanded and
used only in those fine articles which worn by
the wealthier classes of society.


The cotton of Surat-the description