GREAT BRITAIN 



499 



resource in the first trying months of the cotton 

 famine, and had the period of the deprivation 

 of work been shorter, the greater part of the 

 Lancashire employes would have bridged it over 

 with their little reserve without assistance from 

 abroad, and though the poor rates might have 

 borne somewhat hardly on the property hold- 

 ers, we should probably have heard little or 

 .nothing of the distress in Lancashire. 



But the distress has been in existence for a 

 long period. The market for cotton goods had 

 been glutted by an immense over-production 

 in 1859 and 18GO, so immense that even a ces- 

 sation of production almost entire for a year 

 and a half has hardly sufficed to reduce the 

 stock below the normal quantity ; and at the 

 same time the raw material was rising in value, 

 slowly at first, but soon more rapidly, until it 

 surpassed considerably the price which could 

 be realized for the manufactured goods, and, 

 tinder the double influence of an overstocked 

 market and excessive cost of cotton, the manu- 

 facturers, in the summer of 1861, began to work 

 short time, and in September many of them 

 closed altogether. The hope that this state of 

 things would not continue, encouraged the 

 people to bear up under the privation of labor 

 and wages. Nowhere in England were there 

 in ordinary times fewer paupers, or lighter 

 poor rates, than in Lancashire. The poor rates 

 in 1860 had not averaged, throughout the coun- 

 ty. 6<7. in the pound of assessment, and the 

 paupers were mostly of the idle and dissolute 

 class, so that the name of pauper had there an 

 idea of degradation connected with it, which 

 these thrifty work people could not endure. 

 It was not then till their little hoards in the 

 savings banks and their reserves in the Coopera- 

 tive Societies were gone, and even their cloth- 

 ing and furniture, and the bijous and memen- 

 toes of a more prosperous time, were all dispos- 

 ed of, that they would consent at all to ask 

 parochial aid, and even then such was their 

 horror of being regarded as paupers, that many 

 of them, when urged to seek such assistance, 

 would reply: "Xay, but we'll clem (starve) 

 first ; ' and some did perish from starvation 

 rather than ask parish assistance. It was not 

 till the summer of 1862 that the necessity for 

 further assistance to these distressed work peo- 

 ple became generally known, and the first meas- 

 ure adopted for their relief was that by Parlia- 

 ment, of which we have spoken, authorizing the 

 poor law unions to borrow money and to assess 

 the excess of their rates on the other unions of 

 the county. This act, properly called the " Rate- 

 in-aid Bill," has produced some relief, though 

 it was some time before it could be brought 

 into operation, and meantime the poor rates, in 

 some of the unions, had risen to the unprece- 

 dented and unendurable sum of 10, 11, 12. and 

 even 13 shillings in the pound, and this, too, 

 when the property holders, on whom this bur- 

 den falls, could not collect their rents in conse- 

 quence of the distress of their tenants. It be- 

 came evident that further relief must be afford- 



ed, and while many of the mill owners paid 

 small weekly sums to the operatives they could 

 not employ, contributions were liberally made 

 from all quarters to the amount, before the 

 close of the year, of more than a million pounds 

 ($5,000,000). Yet, notwithstanding this muni- 

 ficent contribution, to which has been added, 

 we are glad to say, nearly half a million of dol- 

 lars from this country, the suffering has been 

 and still is severe ; indeed it cannot be other- 

 wise when full half a million of persons, whose 

 earnings, in prosperous times, were not less 

 than $1,250,000 a week, are wholly dependent 

 upon charity for their support. 



Under the wise influence of those who have 

 been their true friends in this trying time, the 

 girls and women, who are receiving aid, are 

 gathered in sewing societies and taught to make 

 garments for themselves and families, and per- 

 form other household duties, matters in which 

 they had hitherto, from their constant employ- 

 ment in the mills, been somewhat deficient. 

 The men frequent the reading rooms and 

 working men's colleges to a far greater extent 

 than the gin palaces. The probable supply of 

 cotton for the present year, is not indeed suf- 

 ficient to enable the mills to run more than 

 half time, but with the enhanced price of cot- 

 ton goods this may be sufficient to keep the 

 operatives from starvation. 



The other events of the year, whether relat- 

 ing to the external or internal policy of Great 

 Britain, have not been of very great importance. 

 The revolution in Greece excited the sympathy 

 of the people and the Government, and al- 

 though the agreement into which the three 

 protecting powers had entered, could not ad- 

 mit of the gratification of the unanimous de- 

 sire of the Greek people, that Prince Alfred 

 (second son of Queen Victoria) should become 

 their king, yet the British Government indicat- 

 ed its good wishes toward them by suggesting 

 other candidates of a liberal character for the 

 vacant throne, and by offering to the Ionian 

 Republic, for many years under British protec- 

 tion, the opportunity of becoming a part of the 

 Greek kingdom. 



The overtures of the French Government, in 

 the early part of November, for a joint offer of 

 mediation in American affairs were declined, 

 and the War Minister, Sir G. Cornwall Lewis, 

 avowed himself opposed to any offers of media- 

 tion or interference. 



In relation to Italy the Government confined 

 itself to expressions of sympathy with the King 

 of Italy, and a desire for the termination of the 

 difficulties relative to the occupation of Rome ; 

 while the sympathy of the people for Garibaldi 

 and their indignation at his being wounded and 

 taken prisoner was very strong. The amnesty 

 which was soon after proclaimed toward him 

 and his followers was, not improbably, hastened 

 by the suggestions of the British Government. 



STATISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1. Financial. 

 The gross amount of the revenue of Great 

 Britain for the year ending Sept. 30, 1862, was 



