=Source.=--_Annual Register_, 1863; _English History_, pp. 140, 141.
The maximum pressure of the distress occasioned by the stoppage,
partial or total, of the cotton mills of Lancashire and Cheshire had
been attained a short time prior to Christmas, 1862. In the month of
December the number of persons receiving regular relief was supposed
to be little short of 500,000. The weekly loss of wages at the same
time was estimated at about £168,000. In the last two or three weeks
of the year a partial improvement took place, and in January, 1863,
according to the statement officially made to the Manchester Relief
Committee, the number of persons receiving aid from the rates and from
the contributions of the public together was 456,786. From this time a
progressive decrease took place, the numbers relieved during the five
months following being as follows:
In February 440,529
” March 426,411
” April 364,419
” May 294,281
” June 256,230
It thus appears that the number of persons dependent on parochial
rates and on voluntary contributions became reduced at the end of the
first half of 1863, as compared with the maximum amount in December,
1862, by almost one-half. This favourable result was due partly to the
resumption of work in some of the factories, owing to an increased
supply of the raw material, and partly to the absorption which had
taken place to some extent of the surplus hands in other employments,
and to the removal and emigration of some part of the population. This
decrease in the number of unemployed operatives continued with little
variation during the summer. In July the number relieved had fallen
to 214,155; in August to 205,261; and in September to 184,625. The
list of persons relieved at that time exhibited a steady decrease of
1,500 per week. In that month it was computed that out of the 530,000
operatives of all ages whose industry depended upon cotton, there
were 362,000 in employ, of whom nearly 250,000 were at full work, and
120,251 working short time, while 171,535 were entirely out of employ.
It was apprehended that, as winter approached, a reaction would take
place, and that the relief lists would again begin to show a serious
augmentation. But this expectation was only to a small extent realised.
The number relieved in the month of October was 168,170. In November
it increased in a trifling degree, being 170,859; and in December it
showed an addition of about 10,000, the total being 180,900. Still,
upon a comparison of the number of persons in receipt of relief in
the first and last months of the year respectively, the improvement
was very marked, the last week of December, as compared with January,
showing the very large decrease of 275,877. The average percentage of
pauperism on the population of twenty-seven unions in the last week
of December, 1863, was 6·8; whereas in the corresponding week of 1862
it had been 13·2. It was further shown by a report of the Special
Commissioners of the Poor Law Board on the 4th of January, 1864,
that at that date, as compared with the last week in March, 1863, a
reduction had taken place of 33,963 in the actual number of operatives
in the cotton districts, the surplus having been transferred to other
fields of employment--viz., 18,244 having emigrated to the Colonies or
to the United States, and 15,725 having found other occupations within
the districts.