THE LATE COTTON DISTRESS.—FAVOURABLE PROSPECTS. (FROM THE "TIMES.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1977, 17 November 1863, Page 5

THE LATE COTTON DISTRESS.—FAVOURABLE PROSPECTS. (FROM THE "TIMES.")

The report of the Central Relief Committep is satisfactory. A great many operatives have availed themselves of the offep "f ngmoultui at work from the landowners in the neighbourhood. M.ivy have loft for the same wotk in adjacent counties. The pressure upon the Relief Fund and upon the rates ha* therefore much decreased, the piesent expenditure being only at the rate of £35,000 per month from the Relief Fund. (The number of persons receiving relief either from the fund op from the rates, or from both, is 805,000. The cotton report is an improvemo"* When we give the number*, it must bo »■*— " „ •" nobody could possibly have r; ,£>s?££■ mencementof this --^ manuf ; cturing cafcl , trophe tuactiiß cotton mamifactuie could have recovered itself to the oxtont it has done so soon. It looked liko ft total downfall, but the numbers now are— 242,000 at full work ; 120,000 at short work ; out of work, 171,000. This is an addition of 100,000 at full work since February last. T.ho committee anticipate an improvement upon this next year, even on the supposition of tho Americ.in war continuing, "though it cannot be hoped that the supplies from other paifcs of the world in 1864 will bo sufficient to place all the mills upon full time." That the commitee should have thought it neces&ary to state this shows how much more has been done than could have been at first expected. If things go on improving as thny have done, another two years will see us out of this sad business. We shall be going on just as we did before the American war, and the only difference will be that the seat of the cotton will have been to a great extent transferred. We have been living through a great ordeal— an ordeal which will make a great figure in history and the surprise is how little, comparatively the country at large has been affected by it. There was a time when nothing but * famine could have been the result of mich * large stoppage of work. As it is, the rates with the assistance of private charity, have carried the distressed population through the crisis without even any serious loss of health. One important means by which this latter result has been secured has been the very wise step on the part of the committee and the parochial authorities in immediately looking about for work for the unfortunate men. The law guaranteed them life, but it was most important that they got through the crisis with as little lost of heai tas possible. A population degenerate* when it desponds, and therefore it was of the first moment to keep up their npirita. It wa* the step ot providing work which did tin*. A labouring m*n, in any department of labojfrfiifwretched if he i* obliged to be idle. Regular work is hi* existence. The country labourer follows the plough till lie drops. The great difficulty is to get him to atay at home when he i* really *o ill that he ought not to move. When he i* in a state of body which would keep a gentleman alternating between his bed and hi* *ofa, he allows no change whatever in the routine of the day. He rises at four in the morning as usuul, trudges after hi* horses, and ie on his legs for twelve hour*. He omit* nothing in the outline of the day. Any cba*m in that plan would make him uncomfortable ; it would make him fetl he was not the man he ought. to be. He would feet himself under jv paitial eel i pie. The strength of a labouring inirf'is hi* riehei, and it is like wealth in this respect, that the absence of it ia a, l>low to his pride, n,n,d acts as a bankruptcy would upon the,trnr]esin.in. It ii thgkyerv Innfc thing "that lie will own, that he is not fitforwork. He feel* 'himself TO'his plaoe in the^ world when he i* working,' and that he can look you in the face. And theie feeling* are much the same in. all department* of induitry, ' It wa», «nr«fdr«, of tfif gMjitftt. conitqutnc*, if th*

should havo •inployment of 'some kind found out for him:- 7- When -tlio- Lydiana - were fatniihed Crosus invented gatnei to'ocoupy them, and k6{3t them at play all day, bo that, an the simple legend says, they quite forgot they werehung*y in the,animation of their sport. Ihfl English working twin differs from' the Lydians in his needs, and, even when he has bread to eat, had rather work ■a . great, deal than plaj . All classes accordingly, much, to their^oredit, united in the objeot of finding the uuemployed'operatives something to do. This was indeed almost m much a charity as to feed them. Imagine hundreds of thousands of men just having enough to eat, but enjoying nothing more of life, and the action of life, than that : imagine them drooping at home, or collecting in listless groups outside their doors. What a mass of gloomy, black discontent would such a population' before long become ! What uneasy, restless thoughts they would become the victims of ; what a prey they would be to disgusts and dark fancies, which would fasten on them, and whioh when they once fastened on them, they could not throw off. This has been spared them by the Lancashire gentlemen, the committee, And the Legislature, in passing the Public Works Act, all uniting to find employment for the operatives. An operative certainly looks a Ihh out of water in open-air woik, in the Reid or by the roadside : his figure, face, and complexion, the pale iu-door hands and arms, do not suit the scene. But it is woik, and that in the point. We hear also that they have found it veiy healthy. " Out-of-door labour has been of great advantage to the health of the indigent population." The committee is speaking of the oppn-air work in the neighbourhood, and lemarks that it has prepared them for the "exposure which must nece3paiily attend employment under the Public Woiks Act," for that Act is now coming into play, and the operative is to be converted into a navvy. Bollington, G'osiop, Macclesfield, Bltickfmm, Dukinfield, and Preston, have all taken advantage of that Act, and have borrowed money in order to commence publio woiks. The corporations of Manchester and Sulford are about to take the same step. "The laiger part of the proposed woiks consist of sowernge, paying, and flagging streets. In the Macolesfield Union, some veiy useful works aie proposed in Btruighlening and widening public roads." The committee uiakea an appeal to all local authorities " to embrace the oppoi tunities now offered them of undertaking sanitary and other improvements," They do not promise that their men will be quite equal to navvies in power of work, or fairly earn a navvy's wages, and therefore propose supplementing their wages out of the fund, Such is the last reported stage in the gieat oot ton. crisis, out of which wo aro gradually wot king our way. To do them justice, all parties are behaving aclmiiably under it. There is no despondency or discontent in the operatives, no flinching from the labours of supervision anil direction O.U the part of committees. Tlicie, \n (\ great tendency in benevolent zual to fl,a.S when an affair drugs on for a long time, and no definite conclusion is seen. Agi eat deal of head woik is lcquiied for the management of a large population in distress ; a great deal of forethought, much planning and scheming. This is apt to giaw buideusome in time, and to tempt tl|Q?p \vh,Q began with ardour to become laxer in, tM 1 ' attention as the work continues. We UPv n.o sign of any such cooling on the part of the Lancashire committees. They have put their shoulder to the wheel, and they keep up an unweaiied and unfliigging attention to the progress of affairs.