244 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



Manchester. After giving a picture of the general distress 

 there, he informed me of his own situation in particular, 

 and of the business which brought him to Liverpool. 



' He said that the house of which he is a partner 

 employed about 1,500 hands, all of whom are now idle, or, 

 as the phrase is, off work. That previous to their being 

 discharged he and his partner had struggled on from one 

 week to another in hopes that the times would mend and a 

 demand, more or less, come for their goods. That, in this 

 hope, they had gone on for the last three weeks, and not 

 having a sufficient quantity of money to pay the people 

 their full weekly wages, they had prevailed on them to 

 accept about a third of the sum, as this, with economy, 

 might suffice for subsistence. In procuring the money for 

 this purpose, he told me, they had been reduced to extra- 

 ordinary difficulties. Formerly they sold their goods in 

 large quantity, but now they determined to supply the 

 retailers themselves with a single piece, or even less ; and, 

 provided they paid them in specie, at almost any price. 

 Accordingly, having goods in their warehouses that suited 

 the home market, they fitted up a light cart and sent a 

 young man with it full of goods, to supply the retailers in 

 every part of the country, and bring home the specie 

 every Saturday, whatever might be the loss. The ex- 

 pedient succeeded for about three weeks, but had now 

 failed, and he was come to Liverpool to try if by any 

 possible means he could raise a few hundred guineas to 

 get over another week and keep his people alive. He told 

 me that he and his partner had been constantly amongst 

 them, and by entering into all their distresses, had pre- 

 vailed on them to be extremely patient and reasonable. 

 At their last meeting they had agreecl to wait this young 



