305.5620942 Ad86 /. coyeniently introduced in the body of the pamphlet, although ited upon one sheet. r r ^ gu ey are numbered. 41 218 62 61 47 170 21 40 118 95 24 237 15 41 134 30 14 178 9 20 104 62 18 184 86 319 418 248 103 769 £. r 1028 persons; giving an average of unt per annum. 2678 17 8 23 29 16 4 5 1 1 1 1 Is. Is. 6d. 2s. 2s. 6d. 3s. 3s. 6d. 4s. 4s. 6d. 6s. 6s. 35 persons; giving an average of )unt per annum. 1305 17 0 L*. 2 s. M. sl cases, or 61 persons. ns; giving an average of Is. 3d. per 7 9 5 3 1662 1 0 Cd.2s.2s.6d.3s.}24 cases, or 41 persons. ng an average of Is. 2id. per head 923 0 0 ^3. 2 s.*Gd. 3 s. 33."6d.} 13 eases, or 20 persons.- it. *de6569 15 4 ( 13 .) STATEMENT OF PAROCHIAL & OTHER K Distributed yearly in the Township of Manchester in the undermentio i 1 ! Aggregate No.of cases relieved. Average weekly No. in¬ mates of work- house. Amount of pa¬ rochial expendi¬ ture on account of the poor. Voluntary contributions for bedding, soup, &c. 1838-9 109,044 711 £. s. d. 28,304 6 5 £. s. d. 0 0 0 1839-40 113,185 845 33,260 8 4 3732 7 6 1840-41 123,088 1075 38,938 2 5 0 0 r 1841-42 130,156 1080 40,777 8 0 5529 15 1 28 Printers, uf.,. DISTRESS IN MANCHESTER. EVIDENCE (TABULAR AND OTHERWISE) THE STATE OF THE LABOURING CLASSES In 1840-42. BY JOSEPH ADSHEAD. “ The relief of human suffering is a sacred duty, written from the beginning on the hearts of men, enforced by the positive precepts of the Gospel, and which no nation can violate or neglect with impunity.” Hr. W. P. Alison. LONDON: HENRY HOOPER, PALL MALL EAST. 1842. Cave and Sevek, Printers, Pool Fold, Chapel Walks, Manchester. 3o^,a6Zo9^Z 4clti^ PREFACE. In the early part of the year 1840, an investigation of the circumstances of upwards of 12,000 families^ of the more indigent population of Manchester, was made at the instance of a number of gentlemen who had undertaken the arduous and responsible duty of admin¬ istering the relief which, to the amount of nearly £4,000., the benevolent portion of their fellow-towns¬ men had provided, for the alleviation of the physical sufferings of a large mass of our working populaton. The investigation was pursued with the most anxious desire, on the part of its conductors, to arrive at the exact truth, there being no purpose to serve therein but the due apportionment of individual relief, as determinable by the aggregate amount of privation ascertained to exist. With a view to test the returns, * The entire population of the township of Manchester, by the last census, is 163,667; and allowing 4.5 as the average nnmber of persons in each family, (which is under the estimate of the Manchester Statistical Society,) it will appear that the examination embraced about one-third of the entire population. VI. therefore, which were made to the Relief Committee by the agents employed in collecting the information, reference was made, in a variety of ways, to returns on the state of the labouring population which had been made under other auspices and with other immediate objects; and the result in all the cases was,—a full confirmation of the substantial accuracy—in some cases the correspondence was surprising—of the records of poverty and want furnished to the Relief Committee. To the Writer of these pages was assigned the task of directing and superintending the investigation in ques¬ tion, as well as a previous inquiry (which, in fact, gave rise to the present); and circumstances having led him, for some years previously, not only to bestow much attention upon the state of the poor of this neigh¬ bourhood, but also to the conclusion that,—notwith¬ standing the labours of several able predecessors in this important field of inquiry,—a very imperfect notion was entertained of the amount of poverty which ex¬ isted among us, both as to its extent and severity;— he was induced, upon the completion of the branch of inquiry instituted by the Relief Committee, to set on foot a further inquiry, embracing a wider field of investigation, and so shaping the instructions of the Vll. agents employed as to secure the collection of the most specific information possible upon all the points indispensable to a precise and accurate estimate upon a subject so important; and to reduce it, as far as prac¬ ticable, to a tabular form, under various striking heads of inquiry, with a view to more forcible arrangement and convenient reference. It was the intention of the Writer to have submitted the results of these inquiries to the public at a much earlier period; but the pressure of other and urgent engagements lias hitherto prevented him. And while, in the interim, the statements which he now ventures to put forth have received further confirmation, from time to time, by other but less minute inquiries,—and but too convincing evidence been afforded that poverty has been advancing with fearfully-rapid strides since the period to which those statements refer;—he cannot but think that the present is a more favourable opportunity than has hitherto been afforded, for giving publicity to them, the attention of the whole nation being now earnestly directed to the state of the country, and to the measures most calculated to extricate us from what appears to be a position of increasing and almost inextricable embarrassment. vin. It is not intended, in these pages, to indulge in any declamatory appeals to the feelings of the reader on behalf of the suffering poor; but rather, to trust to the effect upon his cool judgment of a few simple statements condensed within the smallest limits compatible with a due regard to the object in view, in the hope that these will convince him that the existing distress is of a nature too settled and extensive to admit of mere temporary remedial measures; and that, therefore, the axe must be laid to the root of the evil. Some of the tables here submitted have been already quoted in Parliament and elsewhere, for the purpose of enforcing some particular point; but they have never before appeared in a collected form. Manchester, July 9th, 1842. EVIDENCE, ETCe CHAP. 1. General Condition of the Poor. With a view to indicate in the outset the character of General cha^ racter of tha the details which I shall have to submit, I may remark subsequent that there were two distinct sets of queries furnished to the agents employed in prosecuting the inquiry into the condition of tho poor, one of which, authorised by the Relief Committee, had reference chiefly to the bedding and clothing necessities of the poor; and the other, which • was the precursor of the former, was prepared with a view to obtain evidence as to the proportionate employment and earnings of the labouring classes, and the extent to which the pledging system was pursued by them; and also, as to the effect which their necessitous condition had upon that large body of tradesmen whose interests are so closely connected with those of the labouring classes,—I mean the provision dealers and retail shop¬ keepers ; with other heads of inquiry more particularly exhibited in the various tables hereafter given. And I take this opportunity of remarking that, indepen¬ dently of the confirmatory testimony as to the accuracy of the returns, already alluded to, the utmost care was taken to employ those persons only whose characters were such as to repudiate the suspicion that they would discharge the task remitted to them other than in a conscientious manner. B 10 The sum raised by voluntary subscription for the Amount raised by subscription purposes of the Bedding and Clothing Fund amounted to £3732. 7s. 6d.; and the following brief extract from the Report of the Relief Committee shews the number of recipients of the bounty of their more wealthy fellow- townsmen :— The total number of families relieved was. 10,132 Who had children under 12 years of age, amounting to.... 16,900 Ditto above 12 years of age... 9,030 25,930 And allowing If persons for each family, for single, married, widows, and widowersf. 15,198 The total number relieved was. 41,128 persons, independently of the extraordinary parochial relief^ distributed about the same period, and which, from December, 1839, to May, 1840, amounted (accord¬ ing to a return politely furnished to me by Mr. Ner Gardiner, the Acting Overseer) to £3146. 18s. 5d., expended inbread, soup, and potatoes. * Having more than once, during my intercourse with the indigent poor, been painfully impressed with the conviction that the parochial relieving officers too frequently assume a forbidding, not to say a harsh demeanour, towards those who are the objects of their dispensations, 1 am tempted to quote the following excellent remarks touching the proper qualifications of a relieving officer, from Dr. Kay’s pamphlet on the state of the poor in Manchester:— ‘‘ Since desert does not enhance the claims which indigence can enforce, the only relation which the parish officer now has with the applicant for relief is, that of the investigation and proof of his indi¬ gence, and to this end those now employed may he sufficient agents. But if we would substitute any portion of that sympathy with the dis- tresses of the poor, and that gratitude for relief afforded—that acknow¬ ledged right to administer good counsel—that privilege of inquiring into the arrangements of domestic economy, instructing the ignorant, and checking the perverse, all which attend the beneficent path of private charity, much supebior men must be employed in visiting the houses of the poor; and being the almoners of the public, such an office can only be properlv filled by men of some education, but especially of high moral character, and possessing great natural gentleness.*’ II The distributions of the Relief Committee were con- Particulars of the distri- tinned at stated intervals from April 6th, to June 10th, the Relief 1840. The following is a daily register of the deliveries, which were only made after the most scrutinizing examination of the recipients, by the members of the Committee, at the time of distribution:— BEDDING. CLOTHING. ““ A—-- / - ^ - Date. 1840. Distribution. Families re¬ lieved. Beds. Counterpanes. Blankets. Sheets. j Flannels. Calico. Petticoats. Shirts. April 6 1 158 32 38 46 64 90 110 “ 8 2 359 88 61 144 141 202 253 84 “ 9 3 261 63 89 69 105 161 198 77 “ 10 4 307 93 115 79 144 184 236 57 11 5 381 96 149 62 170 241 340 44 “ 13 6 368 98 132 73 174 235 346 ,, “ 14 7 426 100 160 58 220 242 461 173 “ 29 8 470 90 152 41 270 280 372 1304 “ 30 9 348 57 118 35 205 188 276 153 May 1 10 445 108 144 46 207 227 289 121 20 2 11 494 98 153 73 259i 242 336 112 12 U 7 12 487 93 150 83 230 224 274 133 26 ‘‘ 8 13 472 78 143 58 230§ 214 264 155 25 « 9 14 489 80 126 78 189i 255i 294 95 29 “ 11 15 486 84 140 65 236i 292 264 83 26 « 12 16 482 91 157 102 191 259 251 86 22 « 13 17 422 55 125 51 204i 247 239 101 15 ‘‘ 14 18 486 88 145 64 259i 262 257 101 7 “ 15 19 457 81 168 39 239 237 210 111 8 “ 16 20 504 74 174 33 225§ 3044 260 174 13 June 2 21 444 114 202 81 240i 3074 308 101 5 “ 3 22 420 58 176 73 188^ 2654 232 1034 ,. “ 9 23 486 81 175 70 220 271 247 1444 ,, “ 10 24 480 59 160 42 186 259 314 1534 •• 1 10132 1959 3352 1565 4800i 5690 6631 2492J 208 The following table refers to the occupations of 10,132 occupations of the families of the working classes'^ in the four parochial ing^kls^cs! * This is the number of families actually relieved from the Bedding and Clothing Fund; there were upwards of 2,000 families on the visitors’ books whose necessities were equally urgent, but whom the Committee were unable to relieve for want of funds. 12 districts of the town, distinguishing the English from the Irish portion of those classes, and also the children under and above twelve years of age. respectively:— IRISH. Various Occupations. •suosaa 2 s m Males. 1 Q 1 ^ 1 Pm Ph 1 Ancoats.^ 503 427 475 1405 122 225 347 2 New Town..! I 529 443 355 1327 124 184 308 3 Deansgate..* ' 397 306 328 1031 1 73 162 235 4 Portland-st. 502 391 440 1333 ' 53 1 120 173 1931 1567 1598 5096 372 691 1063 The next table possesses little interest except as being summary of a summary of the numbers of the working classes going, referred to under different heads in the first table quoted:— GENERAL TABLE OF FAMILIES. No District. Families. Children Children Persons. under 12. above 12. 1 Ancoats. 3052 5269 2860 13734 2 New Town.. 2679 4611 1832 12054 3 Deansgate.. 2359 3840 2473 10615 4 Portland-st. 2042 3180 1865 9188 10132 16900 9030 45591 14 Extent of cellar habi¬ tations. Condition of cellar habi¬ tations. Condition of the cottages of the poor. The next table to be submitted to the reader’s notice will afford some idea of the extent to which cellar habi¬ tations are used in Manchester :— , FAMILIES LIVING IN CELLARS. No District. Families. Children Children Persons. under 12. above 12. 1 Ancoats. 555 950 395 2497 2 New Town.. 525 1024 377 2362 3 Deansgate.. 560 949 601 2520 4 Portland-st. 400 556 340 1800 2040 3479 1713 9179 Although this proportion of the whole number inclu¬ ded in the return (and relieved)—upwards of one-fifth— may not appear large when compared with that of other populous towns—(it is considerably less, we believe, than the relative number of cellar habitations in Liverpool)— it must be borne in mind that the cellars which are used as habitations by the poor have no other feature in common with the cellars attached to the middle class of dwelling-houses than that of their being below the level of the street. They are most of them neither drained nor soughed. They are consequently damp,—are always liable to be flooded,—and are almost entirely without the means of ventilation, having rarely but the outlets of door and window at the one side, and these almost hid below the level of the street. But the above-ground habitations of the indigent poor are little better than the cellars, except in the matter of situation. Nothing in the shape of the meanest comforts of life are visible in them. Decent furniture there is none,—bricks, logs of wood, and other contrivances being frequently used as substitutes for tables and chairs, while the bag of shavings or litter of straw is laid in 15 some corner, to be occupied nightly by its miserable tenants, with all its accumulation of impurities inev¬ itably resulting from the condition and habits of the latter. And not always are these abodes of squalor and poverty, whether cellars or ground-floor habitations, occupied by the members of one family alone. Fre¬ quently, different families occupy opposite corners of the same room^ the sexes being no further separated than by the few feet of space which lie between their respective beds of straw. This state of things has come under my own observation repeatedly, in visiting the habitations of the poor. Six or eight persons have I witnessed inhabiting a damp cellar, males and females congregated together, with a line hung along the hovel for the use of the inmates, upon which were suspended, indiscriminately, their torn and dirty apparel; with other scenes of a nature too disgusting for recital. In other instances, parents and children were found sleeping together in the same bed, without regard to age or sex. The following conversation took place between a member of the Relief Committee, and a poor widow who applied to the Committee for a bed :— Examiner. —Have you a bed ? Widow. —I have one. Examiner. —Is not one enough ? Widow. —No ; I have a son. Examiner. —What age is he ? Widow. —Nineteen years. Examiner. —And where has he slept ? Widow. —With me; or he must have lain on the floor. Of course a bed was given for the son. Single rooms occu¬ pied by seve¬ ral families. Association of the sexes. 16 Its conse¬ quences. Parliamen¬ tary report thereon. It would be impossible to over-state the moral and social evils arising from this state of things. The domes¬ tic decencies must be utterly unknown where habits like these prevail; and every barrier against profligacy in its coarsest form must be broken down. In a Parliamentary Report relative to the sanatory regulations of towns, it is observed that where there are children of both sexes, mere decency requires four roomSy —three for sleeping and one for daily use. These are the least that are sufflcient to afford to an average family the house room necessary for decency.” Four rooms the least that is sufficient,” while thousands of families in this town—and tens of thousands in the whole kingdom—have but one room, and that a hovel of the most wretched kind, for all the purposes of life ! \7 CHAP. II. Weekly Earnings of the Poor^ and the Pledging System. The next return which I have to lay before the reader is one which must fill his mind with emotions of surprise and pain, as affording him a somewhat novel kind of evidence of the extremity of distress which prevails in the town, but fearfully confirmative of other general and particular statements on the subject which have from time to time been published. It is proper to re¬ mark that the particular inquiry of which the result is appended, was undertaken at the instance of Sir Thomas Potter, who was then Mayor of Manchester, and who has for a long series of years actively interested himself in the condition of the labouring classes of this district, with a view to the devising and adoption of measures for its permanent improvement. The exami¬ nation was made in No. 1 and part of No. 2 districts, (Ancoats and Newtown,) and it lays open a scene of destitution which cannot be contemplated other than with feelings of deep concern :— c statement of weekly wages and articles pledged. RESULT OF AN EXAMINATION OF 2,000 FAMILIES, THEIR AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES, AND AMOUNTS OF ARTICLES PLEDGED. Families. Children under 12. Children above 12. Persons. Average of wages per week. Total Incomes. No. of Pawn tickets. Amount of articles pledged. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. 4 13 2 23 1 i 0 2 m 60 6 16 7 9 32 12 53 4i 0 19 lOi 101 8 3 3 18 52 40 128 5| 3 1 4 339 36 12 11 11 43 9 73 6 1 16 6 111 14 14 2 4 15 2 25 7 0 14 7 23 1 3 9 10 29 7 53 7f 1 14 2 f 123 11 11 0 47 149 46 288 8i 10 4 0 488 54 3 5 65 90 48 259 9 9 14 3 591 70 2 5 22 42 31 121 9f 4 18 3| 256 28 10 11 3 8 2 16 m 0 14 0 50 6 14 9 76 122 186 436 lOf 19 10 7 939 90 2 1 15 26 15 68 lU 3 3 9 143 20 5 4 72 127 53 296 Hi 14 3 8 732 86 4 10 217 395 194 935 Hi 45 15 2126 223 12 5 122 209 85 524 1 1 28 7 8 1254 142 3 8 151 240 122 632 1 li 35 11 IH 1718 215 13 2 157 277 174 752 1 2i 46 4 4 1556 203 2 2 97 157 75 405 1 3 25 6 3 1311 142 18 7 95 158 91 425 1 H 27 8 m 1477 173 12 3 254 501 301 1009 1 4i 70 8 4i 3241 450 11 4 119 138 73 419 1 5 29 13 7 1066 152 2 8 40 44 35 148 1 6i 10 12 9 601 85 13 4 160 327 174 779 1 6 58 8 6 1877 267 5 9 143 210 124 585 1 7 46 6 3 1407 155 4 6 41 86 34 192 1 7i 15 8 0 254 51 2 6 48 95 45 222 1 71 18 0 9 573 82 6 7 2000 3585 1980 8866 528 10 lOi 22417 2780 14 4 Giving an average of Is. 2Jd. per head per week for 8866 persons, or 2000 families at 5s. 3jd. per week. 19 In order that I might establish the accuracy of the return just submitted, and also assure myself whether or not it bore any proportion to the returns of a like kind obtained by other parties in the other districts of the town, I was induced to consult the valuable and unquestioned records of the Town Mission, from whence I obtained the following table, which is sufficiently explained by its heading, and which fully confirms the accuracy of the preceding return:— tion of this statement. W O < . ciq Q ^ W O W ^ He/, w fa Hq Sm o H GO w p. fl o cS o-S <5*2 Sh o; O 2 ■< Q cc c3 o3 H be CO O o 3 r-i c 5 o • Ci o CO CO CO CO 00 »o 00 CO ■^In tolro 00 O' ro mU OvO 't 0 op 'OK M uo 00 Np H H C0|tJ< Oto Oi C ) Ci cc r—< C ) ot o Q i-H l> >1 o (M (M 00 ^ T}^ CO (Cl r-H CO CO 00 CO CO CO c ) CO o 00 00 o o c ) c > o o o c ) c > o o CO »o o (M o Ph CO CO 00 u c2 .14 c3 M KJI S.1 -a ^ VOIO g O'h ^ rHlc» O CO o «« CO o . be'® g ^ o ts. cn is bc'« .3 .t 8 o 20 Cases illus¬ trative of the pledging system. Estimating the pledges of the whole 10,000 poor families relieved upon the same proportion as the foregoing, and assuming that one-half of the actual value of the goods is advanced by the pawnbroker— although it is understood that one-third is nearer the truth—it will be found that the property of the poor in pledge at one time (April, 1840) in Man¬ chester amounted to the enormous sum of £28,000. for 10,000 families only; and the subsequently in¬ creased pressure of the times will have increased rather than diminished that amount. I feel utterly incapable of adding force to these state¬ ments. They are a condensation of the records of privation which must appeal directly to the sympathies and the judgment—not to say the feeling of self¬ protection—of every humane and reflecting individual. It was indeed a touching spectacle to see the care with which the poor creatures brought forth, from some concealed part of their scanty dress, or from some hidden corner of their wretched abode, (with a view to furnish the required information,) the bundles of tickets which formed their humble title-deeds to articles of household or personal use with which, one after another, they had been obliged to part, and of which they had little chance of ever becoming again possessed. Although the nature of these pledging operations will be readily understood, I am induced to quote a few of the cases which came under my own observation, as illustrative of the course in which article after article of extreme necessity was parted with, in order to meet a necessity still more rigorous—that of providing a morsel of food to avoid death from actual starvation:— J. G., a poor widow, aged 79, residing in Silk-street, Ancoats. Her employment was odd jobs;’’ had a female lodger, who worked in a ncighboiinng milL Here we found twenty-seven pawn tickets, amount- 21 ing to £1. 10s. 3d., coinj^rised of the following, some of which had ‘‘runout:”—Petticoat, Is.; bedgown. Is 6d.; bolster cover, 4d.; gown, 2s.; sheet, 2s.; quilt, Is. 6d.; gown, Is. 6d.; apron, 3d.; shawl, 2s.; chemise, 6d.; apron, 4d.; counterpane, Is.; chemise, 4d.; pillow cover, 9d.; shawl, 2s.; shawl, 6d.; chemise, 6d.; apron, 6d.; bedgown, 2s.; bed cover. Is. 6d.; print. Is. 6d.; gown, 2s.; frock, 2s.; apron, 3d.; waistcoat. Is. 6d.; shawl. Is. This poor old woman remarked, “I have only one shift, and am obliged to take it off’ to wash.’* J. G., a spinner, and wife; twelve tickets, amounting to £1. 6s. 4d.: — Coat, os.; gown, 2s. 8d.; ten yards of print, 3s.; shawl, 3s.; sheet, 8d.; petticoat. Is. 3d.; shirt. Is. 3d.; box and bonnet, 3s.; waistcoat. Is. 6d.; bedgown, 2s.; shoes, 2s.; gown. Is. Appeared decent people; “ obliged to pledge to live.’’ J. C., hand-loom weaver, wife, and child. Out of work; when em¬ ployed got 4s. a week; have had two quarts of soup; never had any other relief from parish; “ have pawned every stitch I had.’’ Ten tickets, amounting to I Is. lid.:—Petticoat 8d.; beads, 6d.; chemise, 9d.; bundle, 3s.; shawl, 6d.; apron, 6d.; shirt, 6d.; gown, 3s.; bedgown, 6d.; Sheet, 2s. Lodgings Is. 4d. per week; had no bedding, but coarse sacking, and without either chair or table ! C. L., wife, and three children under five years old. Hand-loom weaver, in a cellar ; has eight tickets, amounting to 17s. 9d.; “ I burnt all that were out:”—Stockings and apron. Is. 3d.; gown, 3s.; trowsers, 2s.; shoes, 3s.; shawl, 2s. 6d.; print, 2s. 6d.; shirt. Is.; gown, 2s. 6d. “ Have not had a stitch of blanket for two years, and scarcely anything to cover us;’’ a dark cellar, rent Is. 4d. per week. D. D., hand-loom weaver, in a cellar; partially employed; wages from 4s. to 5s. per week. Twelve tickets, amounting to £1. Is. 8d.:—Shift, Is.; bundle, 4d.; shawl. Is. 3d.; gown and child’s frock, 5s.; blanket. Is. 6d.; shoes, 4s.; petticoat, 2s. 5d.; suit of clothes, 2s.; quilt. Is.; shirt, 2s. 6d.; trowsers. Is.; handkerchief, 8d. Not a chair in the place, and nearly destitute. T. M., a widow ; one daughter, aged 17 ; has not received any money for six weeks, but 2s. from a lodger. Seventeen tickets, amounting to £3. 3s. 3d.:—Frock, Is.; gown, 3s.; bundle, 15s.; gown and shawl, 6s,; gown and shift. Is. 6d.; bundle, 2s.; chemise, 6d.; silk handkerchief. Is. 3d.; gown, &c , 4s.; boots, 3s.; shoes, 2s.; gown and handkerchief, 6s.; clock, 7s ; shift, &c. 3s ; sheet, &c. 3s.; gown, 4s.; shift. Is. Has been better off*; seemed a very decent person; said—“ Had good clothes, obliged to pawn them to keep from starving.” 22 Confirma¬ tive testi¬ mony. The following extract from a letter dated 16th November, 1841, which I have received from an ex¬ tensive and respectable pawnbroker in the Ancoats district, gives some very valuable details upon this painfully interesting branch of inquiry:— In answer to yours of the 13th instant, I shall simply answer your queries, although it may be imperfectly ; hut I must first remark that our neighbourhood can scarcely be taken as a fair criterion of the real state of Manchester generally, as I believe this neighbourhood has felt less of the bad effects of the times than the rest of the town and neigh¬ bourhood, because they have been much better employed during all this summer, and I believe at as good wages as any place in Lancashire. Those of the working classes who have, and are now suffering most, are, without a doubt, the hand loom weavers, together with those where the mills are stopt, and another close by, which was burned down about ten days ago. Your first question is,—What are the causes, generally, of the working classes pledging their goods, and whether from dissipation or from actual want To which I answer,—partly from improvidence, but chiefly from necessity ; but not from habits of dissipation as formerly, as I am satisfied that teetotalism has had a very great influence on the working classes within these few years past. Formerly we used to be greatly annoyed in our business with drunken people, but now our business is conducted with great ease and comfort. Your second query is,—“How has the condition of the working classes, within the last three years, operated more particularly upon your branch of business?*’ To which I answer,—that in consequence of the working people being not more than four days a week employed, those who have been in the habit of coming to our shop, have had great difficulty in pay¬ ing interest on goods pledged at the end of twelve months, and in a great many cases, they have lost them altogether. Besides, wffien goods are forfeited, and we bring them forward to sell, we have great difficulty in realising on those goods the principal lent, without the interest thereon. Those of the working classes who are in the habit of pledging with us, do not now so regularly redeem their goods as they used to do some years ago. Those individuals who are in the habit of pledging, pledged with us much better goods, consequently we made larger advances, which of course suited our purpose much bettei'^; whereas, the principal goods pledged, are, in comparison, mere trifles, and of course we lend accord¬ ingly. Besides, there is a false notion generally entertained by the public respecting our business. The public suppose that when trade is 23 bad our trade is the best, as we cau lend any sum of money, and have goods at what we please. Nothing is further from the truth* for when trade is good we turn our stock at least half a dozen of times oftener in the year, consequently our profits are greater, because on any pledge we never receive less than a month’s interest, even if it has only been with us one day. Your next question is,—“Have you found, within the period referred to, that those who have been compelled to pledge have been able to redeem their goods to any material extent I” In answer to this, according to our stock, I cannot say wdthin the last three years we have had any more goods forfeited than in the three years previous to the last. This may be accounted for in this way, by our being much more careful in taking in pledges, seeing the bad prospect we had before us; so that if we had lent little enough on the pledges during the last three years, which we have done, the persons pledging those goods, if of any greater value than we could receive for them, make great exertions, either to pay the interest on them, or redeem them altogether. The fourth question is,—“What are the stale of pawnbrokers’ stocks?” I have no exact idea; but judging from my own, I should say, that none of them ever held such large stocks before. Your fifth question is,—“ What is the estimate increase of pawnbrokers within the last ten years I” This question you can get answered correctly by applying at the Stamp-office; but I should think in Manchester and Salford there are at least three times as many as there were ten years ago. Your last question is,—“ May it not be supposed that the capital embarked is from £1,000. to £10,000.; or what would be considered a fair average?” To which I remark, that pawnbroking is not carried on to that extent in this town as it is, for instance, in some parts of London. Gold and silver plate is very seldom pledged to any extent. It is plate that makes a stock heavy, and no very great stock of this kind is held by any pawnbrokers in this town; so that in answer to your question, I would say, that taking the pawnbrokers one with another they will not exceed on an average above £1,000. There are a few who, I dare say, hold from £8,000. to £10,000. stock; but then again, there is a host of smaller tradesmen, who have started up within these ten years, who began with perhaps not more than £300. or £400. The Relief Committee finding, in the course of their itlsld from inquiries, that they should in many cases be rendering more assistance by redeeming articles pledged, and restoring them to their owners, than by expending the same sum in the purchase of bedding or clothing, they 24 appropriated £139. 19s. lljd. in this way; and the following table exhibits a summary of the different articles released^ and the amounts paid to the pawn¬ brokers for money advanced and interest thereon. From this table we find that the average interest is 16 per cent, on the total sum; but of course no average of time can be ascertained, as the periods during which the articles were in pledge would, very probably, vary from a week to twelve months. STATEMENT OF ARTICLES REDEEMED FROM PLEDGE. Articles. Total. Interest. Average for each article. £. s. D. £, s. D. s. D. 606 Sheets . 28 4 0 4 19 1 1 311 Blankets . 36 0 14 5 9 2i 2 8 208 Bed Quilts . 12 2 Oi 2 2 4f 1 4i 51 Bedticks . 6 15 8 1 3 0| 3 1 447 Petticoats & Shifts. 15 8 Oi 2 13 41 0 234 Shirts . 11 0 4 1 17 2 1 1 Wearing apparel... 27 15 0 4 4 Oi Bedding . 1 6 9 0 4 10 12 Bundles . 1 2 3 0 4 0 Calico . 0 4 11 0 1 7 139 19 22 19 3 25 CHAP. III. Narratives of Suffering. I NOW propose to avail myself of the labours of the agents of the Town Mission, than whom no persons are better qualified to speak of the condition of the labour¬ ing classes of this populous neighbourhood. And here I would gladly bear testimony to the efforts of the Ministers of all denominations—Churchy Catholic, and Dissenters,—whose ministrations to the temporal and spiritual wants of the poor have indeed been most exemplary. It may be proper to observe, in this place, that more Extent of its ^ ^ operations. than three-fourths of Manchester and Salford, with their immediate vicinities, are occupied by the mission¬ aries of this society, who are employed during the whole of their time in communicating religious instruc¬ tion, chiefly by visiting from house to house. At present they occupy 47 districts, each containing about 750 families of the class usually visited, so that at least 35,000 families come directly under their influence; and in daily labouring among this large portion of the population, they are necessarily brought to an acquaint¬ ance with their real character and condition. Missionary A. C. reports— I have met with many who have not had a meal for two days, and many have pawned almost everything they had for want of food. D 26 Missionary J. E. reports— In one house in my district there is a family four in number. The man has been out of work for several months, and for want of food was taken ill, and has been in the Infirmary for a length of time. Now he is out, but he has no work 3 and if he had, he has not strength to do it. A family in the same district I found in a deplorable condition. The man has been long out of work ; is a spinner by trade, and has a wife and three children. On Saturday morning he obtained work, went off at five o’clock in the morning, and wrought all day without taking bite or sup. When I was there he came in, threw himself in an old chair, and looked as if he was fainting. His wife burst into tears, and said, “ I know what’s the matter ; you want something to eat, but there’s not a morsel to give you.” This was at five o’clock in the evening. I gave them a few pence to get a little bread, and when it came in and was divided, it was a sorry sight to see how ravenous the little ones were. They prayed that the Lord would preserve me from hunger. While I was on one side of the street a child came to me, and said, Mother wants you to call in our house, please.” I went, and found seven in family—five children— they were sitting round some embers, for the fire was nearly out. The man, a spinner, was out of work, and had been for some months: his wife had used to get a few shillings by reeling, but had nothing to do for a long while. It was Saturday night, and they had neither fire nor food under their walls ; nor had they a farthing to get them with. Although I had nothing to spare from my own family, I gave them a little to help to pass through Sunday. I could mention several cases equally as bad as this. It is needless to multiply cases, for distress is all the cry. J. G. lives in a cellar. This man has a sick wife. I believe her sickness originated, and is protracted, by starvation. They have been many years in the same cellar, and have always paid their rent until lately, but now expect to be turned out destitute of every thing but the rags they stand in. H., also living in the same district, has been nearly thirty years in Manchester; has always paid his rent till lately; has a wife and six children, all out of work, everything in pledge, and are daily expecting to be turned out of doors in a state of starvation. Missionary T. A. reports— - Crawford, Brooks-street, a painter by trade. In this cellar there is not so much as a seat, bricks being used for that purpose > no bed ; a few shavings, scarcely sufficient for a child to lie upon, is all that four of a family have to keep them off the cold flags. 27 A widow, with two children, living in Brooks^court; clothes in pawn, no bed, and in want of food; had nothing for three days till I gave her a soup ticket. Margaret Hinnesy, with one child, Brooks-court; clothes in pawn j had nothing for several days till I gave her a ticket. Buck Wamby, Brooks-street; out of work; when I called was in bed, having nothing to eat—clothes in pawn. M'Farlan, with three children, Brooks-street; clothing in pawn. The husband is a painter by trade ; has been out of work a long time. The last day that I called she told me, “ We have had nothing to eat to-day. (It was then four o’clock.) I am going to pawn these things to get a little bread for my starving children.*’ Another day she had pawned her little boy’s trowsers, which I enabled her to redeem. He cannot go to school for want of clothes, having a very decent suit in pawn. Another Missionary reports— R. Cann, five in family, three children ; all out of work, man sick, and one child sick. The child was laying down on a few shavings of wood in the corner of a damp cellar, without a rag to cover it. Nothing what¬ ever in the cellar. The man said he had been out of work for sixteen weeks. The Missionary adds—might have given many more cases, and will do, if required.” Missionary G. S. reports— Robert O’Brien, Jersey-street, a dyer, with four children ; has had no work for many months; his wife has been lately confined; they have been whole days without any food; they have sold or pledged all that they could for food, or rent for the cellar they occupy, Mary Gorman, a widow, with three children. She has been turned out of a room in Gun-street, her few goods taken for the rent for a few weeks. After having been out for three nights, A. M^Conville allowed her to sit by their fire at night with her children. The Missionary says in conclusion—The above cases, though very briefly stated, may serve to show in some measure the poverty and distress prevailing to a lamentable extent in this district. I have only produced a few cases out of the many (in not one- third of the district), fearing to be too tedious in my details of poverty and wretchedness.” 28 Narratives by a Mis¬ sionary to the Poor. Missionary E. H. reports— M. Cunningham, Gregson-street. He has a wife and four helpless children, and these have nothing to support them but a small pension of 6 d. per day. His wife is obliged to beg in order to prevent her little children from starving. They are in a sad state for want of the neces¬ saries of life. Mrs. Edge, HalPs-buildings, is in great distress; her husband has not been able to work for the last two years; consumption is bringing him rapidly to the grave, and she cannot leave him, he is so very weak and feeble, to look for work. Mrs. Mansfield, Back Newberry-street, is in great distress. Her husband, who is her only support, has been out of work for some months, or has been only partially employed. He was obliged to go into the country to some friends to beg something from them for his wife, who is near her confinement; and on Saturday last was obliged to sell an old chair and some cups and saucers to get a little nourishment for herself. Her husband is a bricklayer by trade. Jones, Great Mount-street, is in great poverty ; has a very sickly wife. He is a shoemaker by trade, but for want of nourishment is unable to work; he has death printed in his countenance. Missionary J. B. reports— Butterworth, with wife and nine children, eleven in all, living in Brighton.street, smallware weaver; the children all out of work, and have been for some weeks. He can only get 4s. per week when he does work, and 3d. off for gas, leaving 3s. 9d. They are in a most wretched state, literally starving. John Lawler, five of family, all out of work, living in Nelson-street; has pawned every article they had; can get no work ; has been a very sober man the last six years; are in very great want. Mr. Buckland, a Missionary to the Poor, gives some heart-rending narratives of cases which he had visited. Here is an extract from a report of his made in the early part of the year 1840:— I will here narrate as briefly as possible a few particulars of an appalling case of destitution, which happened in the immediate vicinity of our institution. In a house almost destitute of any thing in the shape of furniture or things of domestic convenience, lived a man and wife and three small children. The husband had been ill for a long time, so that the family was supported by the labour of the w'oman and what little the 29 eldest child, not ten years of age, could do. For the last twelve months their whole income has not, I believe, exceeded six or seven shillings a week^ I have occasionally relieved them with food and clothing, for they were almost literally naked. Indeed they must have perished but for the assistance of their poor neighbours. Last Sunday fortnight the husband died. The little boy was weaving till past eleven o’clock on Saturday night, and the woman was washing the children’s few bits of clothes- Soon after midnight the poor man, who was lying on what was intended for a bed in the same room, was suddenly taken worse; it was evident that he was struggling with death : the little boy was despatched to a relative, a short distance off, almost in a state of nudity, having only an old cloak over him. This was about one o’clock on Sabbath morning, and the poor man was a few minutes afterwards released from his poverty and his sufferings by the friendly hand of death. I cannot attempt to describe the scene which I witnessed next day, or rather the same day. No words can represent it. The simple facts which I have stated will speak for themselves. The heart bleeds at the recital of such a case of human suffering. Here is a parallel case,—a fit com¬ panion picture of want and its awful consequences:— This is another case in which death was, I have every reason to believe, induced by gradual starvation. It was that of a young man only twenty-six years of age, with a wife and one child, the woman being at the point of confinement. He had been for a long time without work, except at short and uncertain intervals, and hence got into a poor, weakly state of health. The night before the day on which he died he was working, but not having had food for a considerable time, he actually dropped from his loom, became delirious, and in a short time death put an end to his poverty and his sufferings. And this is Mr. Buckland’s summary of the state of His sum- mary of the the poor—the result of an extensive personal examina- tion which he undertook in pursuance of the inquiry to which I have already referred:— At the request of the Mayor, (the late Mayor, Sir Thomas Potter,) whose sympathy for the suffering poor, and anxiety for their improve¬ ment and welfare, need no testimony of mine, I undertook to assist in a statistical inquiry through the No. 1 District, with a view to ascertain from personal observation, carried on from house to house, the exact condition of the w’orking classes. I was engaged in this investigation upwards of a fortnight. The visiting the abodes of distress and poverty 30 Cases detail¬ ed by a mili¬ tary gentle¬ man. was no novelty to me; but I must confess that within no period like that which was devoted to this inquiry have I ever seen a tithe of the suffering and misery which was then brought under observation. I cannot attempt to sketch even the outlines of that frightfully-distressing picture; nothing short of the evidence of the senses can afford an adequate conception of the length and breadth of its deformity. We found vast numbers either totally unemployed, or only having work at short and uncertain intervals. Tt was no uncommon thing to hear men and women say, one after another, we have had no work for several weeks, and sometimes months. Indeed, it was a rare thing among the numerous families we visited to find one that it could be strictly said was fully employed. As to domestic comforts—alas! in very many cases there were none. Of clothing and bedding we found large numbers quite destitute. Several families were almost in a state of absolute nudity. A few shavings, or a little straw, not unfrequently on the floor or bare flags, with scarcely a bit of covering, constituted the hard pillow on which some half-dozen of a family were compelled to rest their weary heads. In these comfortless, destitute homes, we found that the best and most necessary articles were at the pawn-shop. And as a proof that distress had increased with an accelerated force within the last few months, it is only necessary to mention the fact which I ascertained in a large number of instances, namely, that the people had pawned the best part of their bedding after the winter had set in. Indeed, in a very great number of cases we found that all the most useful articles of bedding and wearing apparel had been pawned; the natural consequence of which must be, as was painfully brought under our notice, utter discomfort and destitution. I can to a great extent confirm the statements of Mr. Buckland, as I accompanied him in the early part of his inquiry. The following cases are the result of a personal examination by a benevolent military gentleman of rank and experience, who took a deep interest in the state of the poor at that period:— Eliza Jackson, with two children, lives in a cellar in Frith-street, Chorlton-row, for which she pays Is. 3d. a week. She is a widow woman, a very respectable character, and generally intelligent. She is willing to work, and has always done so. She has been distrained upon for rent, and consequently has no furniture in the house, and neither fire nor food. She has 3s. a week from the Overseers, of which she pays Is, 3d, as above 31 for rent, and has therefore only Is. 9d. per week for the support of herself and two children, who are under twelve years of age. John Burns, a cellar in Jermyn-street. He pays in rent 2s. 9d. a week. His family are six in number: the children earn nothing; and he is disqualified from obtaining relief, being an able-bodied man. They are in great distress. His rent, up to the present, has been paid by pawning all he is possessed of. Alice Bancroft, Angel-street. Five in family—husband and one child sick. They have no means of subsistence. Rent Is. 7d.; received from the Overseers 3s. per week; leaving Is. 5d. for their subsistence. Mary Collins, Gun-street, Ancoats. There are six in family, all out of employment. Her husband has had no work for eight weeks, and he is disqualified from receiving relief, being an Irishman. He receives no relief at any other charitable institution because the children earn nothing. They live by pawning and begging. Elizabeth Curry, Thackery’s-buildings, Oldham-road. They are five in family, one only able to work, who earns Is. 6d. per week. She has been twenty years in Manchester, and is now unable to work from sickness. She receives 3s. from the Overseers, and pays in rent 2s. Sarah Cunningham, Pot-street, Ancoats. An Irish family, nine in number; one of the children earns 4s. fid. They pay in rent Is. fid. The husband cannot obtain work; and is disqualified to receive relief, having only resided four years in Manchester. John Pendor, Back Holgate, Mason-street. They are eight in family, twenty-eight years in Manchester. The family together earn 7s. a week, of which they pay 2s. 9d. in rent. But they are now most severely suffering, from one of the children, who earned 2s. fid. a week, being thrown out of employ. The family has been maintained by the children. They are disqualified from obtaining relief, being Irish. John Maycock, 15 years of age, piecer by trade, laying at the Night Asylum. He is an orphan without home or work. He was received a few days since at the Night Asylum, and will die if sent from it. He is in an utter state of destitution, and no prospect of obtaining work. His master brought him to the Night Asylum, having no work for him. The following cases, which are of a later date, being the result of an inquiry instituted in August, 1841, are furnished from the records of the Town Mission:— As the following statements are intended merely to give a general idea of the state of the working classes, individual cases are omitted, and the districts given are selected from various quarters of the town. In Charlestown District the Missionary states his conviction to be that Further re¬ cords from the Town Mission Re¬ ports. 32 dne-tbird of the people in his district are unemployed at present, and that many of those who are employed are suffering from lowness of wages. In the district near Bury-street, Salford, it is stated that nearly one- half of the people are complaining for want of constant labour, and a large number are out of work altogether. Another Missionary in Salford says,—“ In my district there are many families who are destitute of food and fuel, in consequence of having no employment. What proportion are unemployed I am unable to say, but I know they are very many.’’ The Missionary in St. Mary’s District states ,—** I find that in my district nearly one-half of the people are in distress through want of employment. Several decent families have been obliged to part with their furniture to save their lives.’’ In the district near Peter-street the Missionary believes that nearly one-half of the labouring people are working short time, and perhaps one-fourth are altogether unemployed. The misery of hundreds of families defies description. Of a district in Hulme the Missionary says,—My district has the appearance of comfort, but it contains a great number who are out of work and enduring want in silence.” The Missionaiy’- who labours’ between Oxford-street and Brook-street states that poverty prevails to a very great extent in consequence of want of emi^loyment. It is the general cry of the people—There is nothing for us to do.” Indeed there is scarcely a family in the poorer part of my district in which I do not meet with some one wanting employment. On the other side of Brook-street, extending to Dov»ming-street, there are many,” says the Missionary, ‘‘but half employed; and wages are so much lower than they were, that many are obliged to let off rooms which they formerly had to themselves. Some think and say, ‘ things cannot be worse than they are,’ and are regardless what means are adopted so that a change is effected.” In Chancery-lane District, Ardwick, the Missionary states that he is obliged to listen to tales the most distressing, and to witness misery the most appalling, arising from want of employment. The Missionary who labours around Buxton-street, London-road, gives the following statement:—“ There is much destitution in this district, occasioned by want of employment and the continual decrease of the wages of those who are employed, together with the high price of provisions. Many who are desirous of attending a place of worship cannot for want of clothing; and for the same reason cannot send their children to day or Sunday Schools; under these circumstances demorali¬ zation is likely to increase; the people become more impatient under their sufferings, and care not what change may take place, thinking that they cannot be worse off than at present. 33 Of the district near Travis-streetthe following account is given:—It is hardly possible to describe the poverty and wretchedness of the people in this district; it is in a very alarming state indeed; and unless there comes a speedy change, I believe that many will be actually lost through want. Hundreds have no work, nor the least prospect of any; and have neither sufficient food, nor beds or clothing. Sickness, brought on, I believe, by want, is every day increasing, and employers are afraid to engage men who are reduced to such a weak state by want. In short, no one can form an idea of the wretchedness experienced unless he were an eye witness of it. Pollard-street District.—Nearly one-fourth are out of regular em¬ ployment, and many of those in work are on short-time. Hand-loom weavers are literally starving. Many who were good tradesmen, now go about with vegetables, blacking, &c.” In Oldham-road district, where much wretchedness generally prevails, the Missionary states that more are unemployed at present than ever he knew before. In another district in the same neighbourhood, it is stated that at least two-thirds of the people are suffering—some extremely, others partially. In another it is stated that many families are almost without fur¬ niture of any kind, without beds, half clothed, and destitute of food. Blakeley-street District.—“ More than one-half of the people here are very poor; many are out of employment, and many who have the name of work are unable to procure a sufficiency of the necessaries of life. In the numerous cellars and garrets of this district poverty and misery reign triumphant.” Ashley-lane District,—The condition of the people in my district is truly appalling. Vast numbers are out of work, and many are filled with dreadful apprehensions that they shall perish with hunger. There are many hand-loom weavers who can only earn, when in full work, from 5s. to 6s. per week, and whose condition when only partially employed is truly deplorable. Numbers who live in cellars have nothing to lie upon but a few shavings, having sold or pawned all their bits of clothing and bed clothes. This is no exaggerated view, their condition is beyond description.” Upper George’s.road District.—“ The greatest distress abounds in this district. It is not confined to any one class of labourers exclusively, but appears to be most felt among the poor hand-loom weavers, as their earnings do not afford more than two meals a day when labouring fourteen hours a day; so when they are out of work two or three weeks together, avS they often have been lately, they are literally E 34 starving. Some whom I know to he sober and industrious have assured me that they have passed two days without food.” It will be seen that these statements do not comprise the half of the districts occupied, but as they embrace the principal neighbourhoods where working people reside, and the other accounts are quite similar in their general character, it has not been thought necessary to give them. famOie^spS following Communication is from a gentleman who visited, in the course of last year, 258 families in the town and neighbourhood, most of them weavers, and consisting in all of 1029 persons, whose aggregate weekly earnings w’ere £32. 5s., or less than 7jd. per head per week:— I found some in peculiar distress ^ some children stitched up in calico, I suppose to keep them warm, and save the trouble of dressing and undressing. I examined the room of a large family; there were two bedstocks, worth perhaps 3s., on which were two large bags of shavings, or some such material, but I could not find such a thing in the house as a sheet, blanket, or counterpane. I found in one cellar three families sleeping, about ten in number, in a small close room. The following fact will shew how the times affect the poor:—A mother of a family com¬ plained that the advance of herrings from two for l§d. to Id. each made a distressing difference in her family. I saw many poor creatures apparently pining away for want of food, and so dispirited that they seemed rather disposed to lie still and die; some keeping their beds because they felt less the pangs of hunger, and others smoking tobacco to lay the cravings of appetite. I feel that I must get out of the way of such distress, unless I can have the means of relieving it. More recent Receut investigation tends only to confirm the records of poverty already given. The following pain¬ fully-interesting report is furnished by a gentleman whose attention was directed to the social and moral condition of the labouring classes, with a view to its improvement. The inquiry was made in January last, and it will be seen that its details are, if possible, even more harrowing than any yet given ;— 35 January, 1842. Dear Sir,—An engagement I had made to oblige a friend rendered it necessary that I should visit the inhabitants of several streets in An coats and in the neighbourhood of Oldham-road. As this district is not selected as the most destitute, I believe a few cases I shall state will give a very faithful illustration of the condition of tens of thousands of the manufacturing poor. Upon the first day of our visitation I called at a house occupied by a poor man, a widower with one child, a boy between seven and eight; they were in a state of extreme poverty 5 the man is about thirty-five years of age, and professed himself able and most anxious to work, but had not been able to obtain any employment for many months; both were living upon what the child could obtain by begging. Upon quitting this house the man called our attention to an adjoining cellar, occupied by a woman who had been deserted by her husband. This cellar was both very dark and very damp, the roof not more than seven feet high, and the area of the floor not more than twelve square yards; its occu¬ pants were this woman and her child, a boy six years old, a widow, a lodger with three children, and a second widow with two children, sister of the woman who tenanted the cellar; these nine individuals are all crowded in a place so dark and contracted as to be unfit for the residence of any human being. It was in this abode of wretchedness that we W’itnessed a remarkable illustration of the sympathy and compassion of the poor for those who are still less favourably circumstanced. On the day previous to our visit one of these poor women had observed a poor houseless wanderer with two children, ready to sink with hunger and fatigue; this poor creature’s husband had left her three months before to seek employment, which she was sure he had not been able to procure, or, as she said, he would soon have found her and let her know. Her poor hostess had no better accommodation to offer than a dark unpaved closet adjoining their cellai’, and here, without bed or bedding beyond a handful of dirty shavings which she used as a pillow, the mother and her famishing children were thankful to take shelter; during the night the younger of the children, an infant eleven months old, died, doubtless from long exposure to cold and the want of that support which the breast of the poor, starved, and perishing mother had failed to supply. When we entered the cellar we saw this victim of want laid out upon a board suspended from the roof, and the other children (some of whom were so poorly provided with clothing as to be unfit to quit the cellar without indecent exposure) standing around; the poor mother had left her remaining child and gone out to beg assistance to inter her infant. In the next house we entered we found two men, one twenty*seven, the other twenty five, both weavers, and out of work; they both appeared in 36 delicate health, one, however, much worse than the other • neither of them had been able to earn a shilling for several weeks. To our inquiry how they lived, they replied, “We do indeed exist, we cannot say we live.’' One of them produced a dish with potato peelings, which one of their wives had been successful in begging; this they assured us was the only food they had or expected to taste that day. These men were members of a temperance society, were both remarkably intelligent, and we inferred from the kind and patient manner in which they spoke of their poverty and its causes, which they appear perfectly to comprehend, that their minds were considerably under the influence of moral and religious principles. These men were not victims of intemperance, nor improvidence, nor idleness, nor disease, nor anything else which they could have foreseen or provided against; but, reduced and broken¬ hearted by the impossibility of obtaining work, they and their families are sinking in the midst of misery which they can neither remove nor flee from. This is a spectacle more calculated than almost any other we can conceive to distress a rightly constituted mind. Men, with physical strength, mental cultivation, and moral principle in active exercise, after having spent their time, and strength, and money, it may be, in learning a trade, starving in the largest manufacturing town in the world for the want of employment! And why! Let the supporters of corn laws answer. We were waited for at the door by a poor woman, who begged that we would visit her husband. We followed her to her home, which we found to be a small room nearly destitute of furniture, but well lighted and very clean. Her husband had been one of the kindest and hardest working men in the world, she said, but for the last two months he had never left the house; he had failed in all his efforts to get employment, and had at last given up the task as hopeless. He did not appear to observe our entrance; and when we spoke to him he appeared not to notice us; he had been for more than a week in a benumbed and helpless state, in which he had scarcely uttered a word; but he had given, in his wild unwonted stare and maniacal expression of countenance, fearful symptoms of mental derangement: his wife attributed his con¬ dition entirely to the want of food. Their only income was the wages of a boy who worked in a factory; these wages, at the present high price of provisions, would not supply the boy alone with sufficient food; his mother said that he more frequently returned to his work without tasting food than with a tolerable meal. Her husband had at first, when his own work entirely failed, refused to taste the food purchased with his son's wages, which he insisted should be reserved for him; but since his intellect had become deranged he seized and devoured with greediness 37 whatever food caiiie within his reach. The poor wife, whose lamentation it was distressing to hear, seemed sinking under an accumulation of sorrows. Our very hearts bled within us at the sight of the wretchedness we could not relieve ^ and we could not but think that if men who support corn laws were to witness such scenes, the fear, nay the very possibility, that they might, however remotely, be the cause, would be a sufficient reason for an immediate repeal. Should we not expect that they would make haste to wash their hands of the blood of the famish¬ ing poor! Our next visit was to the dwelling of a widow with four daughters, all under fourteen years of age, and a female lodger. They had all been supported by factory labour, but since the destruction by fire of the mill at which they had worked, they had failed in procuring any other employment. The widow herself was in bad health, without the means of obtaining medical aid; in fact, it was her own opinion that it was unnecessary, for she said she was sure that if she had food to eat she should soon be well, but if relief was not speedily administered she would soon die. The lodger entered as we conversed with the widow; she Avas a young woman, twenty-two years of age; she acquainted us very particularly with the destitute circumstances of the family; they had not had more than one meal per day for many weeks, and nearly every article of furniture, clothing, and bedding had been parted with to obtain it. This young woman had been to purchase the mejil for the day; she carried it covered in her gown. At my request she exposed it—a meal for six persons, and the only one for the day—a halfpennyworth of tea, a halfpennyworth of sugar, and two pennyworth of bread, and this she had purchased by pledging her only remaining petticoat! We were surprised, on entering one house, the inmates of which were miserably poor, to observe what had once been a very elegant cabinet piano. The history of the instrument was this. The family had been in better circumstances. They had kept a provision shop, and in the time of their prosperity had devoted a portion of their %ains to the education of their only daughter. The piano had been bought for her use; she had been carried off, in the bloom of her youth, by an insidious disease; and when trade began to fail, and customers were unable to pay, the poor man’s property was lost, and the provision he had made for his child and his own declining years was absorbed in his profitless trade. But in the midst of all his poverty the piano was still retained as a memento of his beloved child. Many were the families we visited who assured us they had not tasted food that day. Misery and want, hunger and nakedness, are not con¬ fined to particular localities: they are widely spread, and are spreading more widely. The number of the destitute is daily increasing. The 38 universal testimony is, that there never was any distress equal to that which exists at present—that all other seasons of distress were trifling in comparison. The intemperate and the improvident, indeed, are the first to suffer in all seasons of distress^ hut it is long since distress has reached the sober, the industrious, the provident, and the respected among the labouring class. We visited one house occupied by thirteen persons—father, mother, and eleven children. This house was without the least vestige of fur¬ niture ^ every article, even the lock from the door, had been sold to purchase bread. Three shillings per week was the amount of their regular income : this was the wages of one of the sons, who is employed as an errand boy. Four shillings and sixpence was all that they had to live upon for a w’hole week—three shillings brought by the boy, and one shilling and sixpence which had been obtained by the sale of the pan and table, which were the last articles of furniture they had to part with. This sum was expended by Wednesday; and for the next three days, till the Saturday evening, (the period of our visit,) the whole of the family, thirteen in number, had subsisted on 2jd. worth of meal, which was pre¬ pared for use by mixing with cold water. The father of this family bears an excellent character; he had been for several years employed in che¬ mical works, and had been very reluctantly discharged by his employers, when trade had become so very much depressed that the business could no longer be carried on without loss. This man^s late employers had done all they could to serve him; they had even offered to guarantee his trustworthiness to any amount up to £400., but no employment could be obtained; and this poor, but truly respectable man, with all his know- ledge of chemistry and his excellent character, is daily wandering through the streets of Manchester watching for coal carts, that he may follow them to their destination, and there plead as the greatest favour that can be done him, that he may be allowed to get them in for the sake of the few pence which such a service merits. Whatever he earns in this way is forthwith carried home to his famishing wife and family, among whom love for their parents and love for each other seem in a remarkable manner to have survived the circumstances of comfort in which they were formerly placed. These cases (which might be increased to any number) will serve as an illustration of the general condition of the labouring poor of extensive districts in and around Manchester. I have purposely omitted any notice of the condition of the intemperate and the dissolute: in any state of trade they will be found in circumstances very little more desi¬ rable than those in which they are at present found; but the thing most to be observed is this—that honesty, industry, and rigid economy avail not to avert from the suffering thousands the misery and the want by 39 which they are fast sinking, without hope and without help. It is vain to think of private charity—it is spread far beyond the reach of the most extensive charity. If an amount equal to the subscription lately made in honour of the birth of the infant Prince of Wales were daily distri¬ buted, it would fall far short of the most pressing wants of the innu¬ merable poor now deprived, by the operation of partial and cruel laws, of the opportunity of earning their bread by honest industry. The physical effects of the want and misery to which the poor are subjected are suffi¬ ciently obvious in the general ill health which prevails—slow fevers, depression of spirits, feebleness, and faintness, are the most common symptoms. The education of the young is entirely out of the question, even if schooling were to be had without payment The want of clothing is an insuperable obstacle to the attendance of the children of the poor in these districts. For the same reason the Sunday Schools are not attended. Thousands of those who were and would be scholars in a more favourable state of trade, and many who have been usefully employed as teachers, have not the wherewith to cover their nakedness. It would be a matter of no surprise to those visiting these districts to hear, that while all kinds of manufactured goods were falling, rags, and rags only, have advanced to nearly double their former value. As a necessary consequence, the moral condition of the unemployed poor is rapidly and fearfully deteriorating. It is vain, because contrary to all experience, to expect that moral qualities can for any considerable period co-exist with hunger and nakedness. That fretfulness and irrita¬ bility of temper attendant upon the kind of physical suffering to which they are subjected, is more than sufficient to harden the most tender heart, blunt the keenest sensibility, and destroy the most amiable disposition. I cannot omit the insertion, in this part of my subject, of the following interesting document, which affords a touching and emphatic confirmation of the extremity and permanent character of the existing distress :— To the Merchants, Manufacturers, and Gentry of Manchester and its vicinity* The Unemployed Hand-Loom Weavers’ Address, in public meeting assembled, this 30th July, 1841. Gentlemen,—The present crisis in the manufacturing districts bears heavily on the industrious portion of the community, but more especially on the unfortunate hand-loom weaver, whose miserable pittance, when Hand-loom Weavers’ Memorial. 40 fully employed, is scarcely sufficient to procure him the common neces¬ saries of life, which is so plainly seen in his miserable appearance and half-starved complexion. But, gentlemen, how must it be when at a period like this the hand-loom weaver can find no employment,—his hungry wife and starving children looking up to him for bread, and has none to give them I Surrounded as he is by all those circumstances, what can he, or will he do ? He violates no law, he commits no breach of the peace, but sits in silent contemplation brooding over his misfor¬ tunes, until at length the cries of his hungry children drive him almost to madness. Such, gentlemen, are the wretched situations of those poor, but deserving body of men, who were one time the boast of England’s greatness, whose comfortable cottages gave full and plenty to all around them. And now, gentlemen, we appeal to you as men and Christians, which on former occasions we never appealed in vain. We do there¬ fore sincerely hope you will respond to the call of suffering humanity, and rescue our unfortunate childi’en from starvation and death. William Lang. Timothy Coffey. Patrick Flinn. Peter Power. The details and tables already given exhibit a degree of suffering truly deplorable; but the year 1842 brings with it an aggravation of that suffering. Again we find thousands of families in a state of extreme destitution, and articles of bedding are again supplied by the almoners of the public bounty, according to the fol¬ lowing proportions:— The Clergy of the Established Church recommending 2107 families The Clergy and Ministers of other denominations.... 2342 “ Town Missionaries. 1813 Subscribers of £10. and upwards. 1056 ** Sundry other persons. 754 ‘‘ Presenting a total of 8072 families thus relieved, at an expenditure of £3029. 15s. lid., raised as the Prince of Wales’s Fund.” Soup Kitchens are again sending forth their nourish¬ ing supplies to the famishing crowds of daily applicants, 41 and it is the thorough conviction of those who are well acquainted with the present condition of the poor, that but for this very timely relief many might have been reduced to absolute starvation. Whilst our local journals are issuing their weekly appeals for increased resources, we find the Committee of the existing Soup Charity thus addressing the public :— The Committee make this last appeal to the public under feelings of deep anxiety, from a conviction that distress still increases. The misery and starvation that would be caused by closing the Soup Kitchen are looked to by them, as well as those who have the management of the kitchen, with the liveliest concern, and they again call upon the wealthy, ere it he too late. To this fund about £2500. have been contributed, and from 2000 to 3000 persons have been daily supplied with soup for the last three or four months.^ As a natural concomitant, we find our working classes to a large extent the pauperized recipients of parochial relief. The poor rates having most seriously increased during the period to w^hich these pages refer, as the following table strikingly exhibits :— Aggregate No,of cases relieved. Average weekly No. in¬ mates of work- house. Amount of pa¬ rochial expendi¬ ture on account of the poor. Voluntary contributions for bedding, soup, &c. Total. 1 Inc. per cent. I since 1839. 1838-9 109,044 711 £. s. d. 28,304 6 5 £. s. d. 0 0 0 £. s. d 28,304 6 5 — 1839-40 113,185 845 33,260 8 4 3732 7 6 36,992 15 10 30§ 1840-41 123,088 1075 38,938 2 5 0 0 0 38,938 2 5 37i '1841-42 130,156 1080 40,777 8 0 5529 15 11 46,307 3 11 63i shewing an aggregate increase of relief afforded of 63^ per cent, since 1839 ; and a new poor’s rate of three shillings and fourpence has just been imposed by the Overseers of the Poor, accompanied by an expression of their regret that an unavoidable necessity exists for so large a rate.” * Such is the starving condition of many of the poor, that they have been found crowding round the door of the Soup Kitchen for hours before the time of distri¬ bution, which commences at six o’clock in the morning. F 42 CHAP. IV. Provision Dealers. Provision*^^ It is ail inquiry which has often been made,—How Dealers. indigent poor manage to exist, seeing that it is manifestly impossible that the w^ages which so many of them receive can be sufficient for their subsistence ? We have already shewn that pledging is a common resource with the poor creatures, until not a rag on which to obtain the pittance of the broker remains, and that many of them die of actual starvation; and we shall hereafter have to speak of the numerous forms of disease which starvation assumes when it does not effect its work by the shorter and less torturing method. But for the present purposes of the question first pro¬ pounded, it may be sufficient to say, that the Retail Shopkeepers, or Provision Dealers, contribute very largely to the maintenance of thousands of their indigent brethren. We shall introduce the following table without a word of comment, as we conceive that it is sufficiently expressive. Its accuracy may be fully relied upon:— 43 w H m W H o Pm C CO H O »—I Ph H Pi O Pm pq K H CO Pi pq w p 12 ; o S5 H-l P> O Pi p-i Pm O Pi Pt3 w P 12 ; ^2 E3 5 2 S •S Ph s s “ p Total dealers. 172 125 179 175 651 No. of dealers selling for cash. 52 35 81 63 231 Average indivi¬ dual loss for three years. £> s. d. 126 13 4 124 18 0 101 0 0 122 7 2 1 Estimated propor¬ tionate loss for the whole selling on credit. £. s. d. 15200 0 0 12490 0 0 9900 0 0 13582 0 0 51172 0 0 EntireNo. selling upon credit. 120 90 98 112 420 Amount ofloss for three years. £. s. d. 6250 0 0 6245 0 0 5051 0 0 6118 0 0 0 0 CO 0 CO CN P.dealers sell¬ ing on credit individually examined.* 0000 to ^ 0 0 0 0 (N District. Ancoats. New Town.. Deansgate.. Portland-st. No. (N CO ^ It may not be uninteresting to accompany tbis return by a few statements and reports of the persons engaged in this particular branch of inquiry. One of the agents says — It seems to be the opinion of shopkeepers in general that at least one-third of the money formerly in circulation is withdrawn, as the frequent abatement of wages and the condition of the unemployed part 44 of the people is such as to draw down on the poor such privations as must render their situations uncomfortable in the extreme. Shopkeepers have ceased to credit some of them, and they are obliged to live in a state of starvation. I have frequently witnessed them come to shops for a halfpennyworth of sugar, cheese, tea, or coffee, and sometimes for a pennyworth of bread, for a family of eight; and some shops who used to turn over £60. or £70. weekly are not doing one-half that sum, and some not more than £10. or £12. weekly. What will become of the poor in the ensuing winter is a matter of seriousness, as shopkeepers say they cannot assist them as formerly, many of them being almost ruined by giving credit. As regards intemperance among the poor, I have only met with three or four shopkeepei’s w’ho complain on this point. Another of the agents speaks in the following terms: On visiting one shopkeeper in-Street, he told me that he and his wife commenced business, and by industrious habits had saved about £90,, all of which has been absorbed; and although the husband has been in employ, I have no doubt but they are in such a state that they cannot call any of their stock their own. Another told me that when they commenced business they were in good circumstances, but now all is gone, together with the constant earnings of an industrious husband. The wife wept while she related the story. A third, who had a sick husband for a length of time, and a family of nine persons, has lost, within the two last years, £200. The wife wept exceedingly while I remained in the shop. In canvassing this district I find a more uncharitable feeling than in No. 1, as some shopkeepers speak very rashly, and condemn one-half, at least. Perhaps poverty may abound more largely, as many of them are hand-loom weavers, or a greater degree of intemperance may prevail among those of other trades who ought to pay their way ; but from the disposition of many, the dealers attribute the scanty earnings of the poor and their being out of employ as the main cause of their not being paid. This opinion is maintained in general by those who have suffered most, and to whose names are attached the largest sums, and all allow that there has been a great falling off in the poor man’s outlay within the last three years. Some shopkeepers assert that they do not take one half of the money they used to take, a few years ago; and also that their losses have been greater the last year than they ever before expe¬ rienced. There is now in one street ten or eleven shops to let, which were all or nearly all tenanted a few weeks ago ; and many more, I doubt not, would give up if they could collect their outstanding debts among the poor, some of whom, I am very sorry to add, have behaved with the greatest ingratitude to those dealers who have helped them out 45 of their temporary difficulties. A few have since removed, or defied the shopkeepers to recover their debts, but these instances are not many, as they themselves allow. They say that all are not to be condemned for a few, and assert, in general, that about seven out of ten would not only pay their way, if it lay in their power, but would also discharge their former contracted debts. A third furnishes the subjoined details:— I have made a survey of the provision shopkeepers in Oldham Road and neighbourhood, and find the following to be a correct statement, as far as I could ascertain :—I began with T. R., Oldham Road. He says he gives no credit, but does little business, much less than two years ago, and that the present high price of food is ruinous l)oth to the shop¬ keepers and the working classes. Other shopkeepers corroborated his statement. The whole of them in front situations deal in a ready money trade. When I go into the back streets I find it different. In Cornwall- street, R. H., provision dealer, has twelve weekly customers, and has lost £9. since Whitsuntide, owing to cotton mills being stopped, and loses money, more or less, every week. He wishes he could extricate himself, and give up entirely. In Bengal-street, M. A., provision dealer, has a great many weekly customers, and is doing badly, owing to the slackness of trade. Says he loses more or less money every week. In the same street, E. M. has kept a shop three years, and has lost £300; is almost broken, and nearly broken-hearted. In the same street, M. M., shop¬ keeper, says he goes worse every week, and unless a change comes soon he will be ruined. W. A., of Spittal-street, shopkeeper, says the whole of his trade is to weekly customers; has kept the same shop thirteen years; is poorer now than he was when he begun; but for his pension of 9d. per day, and a few lodgers, he should not be able to keep his door open. W. D., Prussia-street, says he has lost £100. in three years; had a great many weekly customers, but turned them off; factory people were his worst customers. It is considered that 2s. fid. in the pound more is charged to those who pay weekly for their goods than those who buy with ready money. 46 Dr. Howard’s communica¬ tion. CHAP. V. Physical Effects of Destitution. Having now proved, by precise statistical tables, and upon unimpeachable testimony, that destitution in its most rigorous form prevails to an appalling extent in Manchester, I beg to draw the reader’s attention to the permanent physical effects resulting therefrom. The following communication, from a professional gentleman^' whose position and habits well qualify him to give evidence on the subject, exhibits such an admirable condensation of fact and argument on the effects of physical destitution, that I deem it unneces¬ sary to add to it any further testimony upon this branch of the inquiry :— Sir,—In complying with your request to communicate the result of my inquiries respecting the state of the poor in Manchester, I shall confine my remarks especially to their physical condition, and such circumstances as have come under my immediate observation in the capacity of physician to a public charity. It is clearly ascertained that the great amount of sickness and mortality of large towns, compared with rural districts, occurs chiefly amongst the labouring classes. The causes of this are sufficiently obvious:—it arises from the unhealthy nature of their employments— their protracted hours of labour—the crowded, confined, and ill-ventilated state of their dwellings—their deprivation of exercise in the open air— * Dr. Howard,—author of “ An Inquiry into the morbid effects of Deficiency of Food,” “ Report [to the Poor Law Commissioners] on the Prevalence of Diseases arising from Contagion, Malaria, and certain other Physical Causes, amongst the Labouring Classes in Manchester,” &c. 47 the foul and contaminated condition of the atmosphere—their intem¬ perate and dissipated habits, and above all from their poverty and destitution. As respects many of these circumstaces much amelioration has been eflfected within the last few years; the factories are now more cleanly, better ventilated, and, owing to the improvements in machinery and conse¬ quent employment of fewer hands, are less crowded—the hours of labour are shortened—many of the most filthy, damp, and malarious streets have been cleansed, paved, and drained, and some crowded and confined parts of the town have been improved by the formation of open spaces and the widening of thoroughfares. There can be no doubt, too, that the prevalence of intoxication (though still lamentably great) has very much decreased latterly. This gratifying result is probably chiefly owing to the beneficial influence of Temperance Societies, but must in some degree be attributed to the increase of poverty, and consequent lack of means to indulge the propensity to drunkenness. There is reason to believe, also, that amongst the better informed class of operatives, a greatly increased knowledge prevails on matters of Hygiene, and that, by many, considerable attention is now paid to this subject, whereby numerous causes of disease are avoided. Notwithstanding all these partial advances, however, it is quite clear that the physical condition of the labouring classes has been gradually deteriorating during the last four years. The resources of many who were in comfortable circumstances have become precarious or exhausted, and they are reduced to a state of pauperism—the poor have become poorer still, and the number of the destitute has increased to an appalling extent. No observant individual who has been in the habit of regularly visiting the habitations of the poor, can have failed to remark many sure indications of increasing poverty. He must often have noticed the com¬ fortably furnished house rendered desolate by the disappearance of one article of furniture after another—the once decently dressed family now but half clothed in worn-out rags, and instead of enjoying a wholesome meal, barely supporting life on a scanty supply of the most meagre diet. He must often have witnessed the vigour and cheerfulness of health and independence, replaced by the emaciated figure, pale cheek, and broken spirits of poverty and disease. The various stages of such a scene have frequently passed before my eyes during a protracted professional attendance. Another feature strongly marking the increase of poverty, and its ex¬ tension to a superior class, is the number of persons now constantly admitted as patients at the various public institutions, who have evidently been in better circumstances, and who have not heretofore been accus¬ tomed to depend on charity for medical attendance. Such individuals 48 often seem to feel deeply their lowered condition, and to think some apology necessary for resorting to gratuitous advice. They frequently remark, that it is the first time they have been under the Dispensary, that they used formerly to pay for medicines, but that owing to want of employment, lowness of wages, or other misfortunes, they are no longer able to do so. The truth of this statement is fully borne out by the testimony of those medical men who practise much amongst the lower orders, many of whom, from this cause, have experienced of late a very serious diminution in their incomes. The result of all this has been an increased pressure upon the medical charities, but as the subscribers to these (owing to the general commercial depression) have diminished,and the difficulties of obtaining recommendations consequently augmented, there has not been that great increase in the patients which otherwise would have occurred. Such, indeed, is the difficulty experienced by the poor in this respect, that many absolutely die without having had any medical attendance. That this is frequently the case in the district of the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary, is well known to myself and colleagues. It is, for instance, no uncommon occurrence for us to find that one, or even two children in a family have fallen victims to measles, scarlet fever, or some other epidemic disease, before a recommendation could be procured, though probably several hours during two or three days may have been spent in begging for one. It must be remembered, moreover, that many portions of the outskirts of the town, where the poor reside, are now beyond the limits to which the visits of the medical officers extend, and that the aggregate amount of persons attended gratuitously by private practitioners, is very considerable. From these circumstances, it is very evident that the number of patients admitted at the public charities does not now afford a true estimate of the extent of sickness and poverty amongst our indigent classes. But if these institutions fail to convey, in the number of their patients, an adequate idea of the amount of the prevailing distress, its severity is but too plainly indicated by the character of the diseases under which many of these poor sufferers labour. In the pale and bloodless countenance, the shrunken features, the weak and tottering gait, the lifeless manner, the feeble pulse, and other corresponding symptoms, the practised eye of the physician readily recognises the effects of privation and want. Such patients frequently have no very definite ailment;—they complain pro¬ bably of headache, occasional attacks of giddiness or dimness of sight, particularly on assuming the erect posture, a distressing sense of sink¬ ing, and various uneasy sensations in the stomach, aches and pains in the back and limbs, an overpowering feeling of general debility and ex¬ haustion, with a corresponding prostration and listlessness of mind. But their complaints soon lose this indefinite character; positive disease 49 before long developes itself in some particular organ, and fatal structural changes are then rapidly produced. The morbid action will locate itself in the head, chest, or abdomen, with a facility proportionate to any inherent delicacy or constitutional tendency to disease in these parts; and the result may be water in the brain, serous apoplexy, pulmonary consumption, affections of the stomach and bowels, diarrhoea, dysentery, mesenteric disease, dropsies, ulcers, &c. Such is the course of nineteen out of twenty of the fatal cases origina¬ ting in deficiency of food, as they occur amongst the destitute poor in our large towns;—the first effect of the gradual starvation to which these persons are subjected being merely a deterioration of their health, which, however, is sooner or later followed by positive disease; and when once the morbid action has been set up, it is frequently impossible to stay its progress, even though the original cause may be removed and ^ the patient’s wants liberally supplied. It may be worth while in this place to direct a moment's attention to the futility oipost-mortem examinations and coroners’ inquests instituted for the purpose of ascertaining the cause of death, when suspicion of starvation exists, unless they are conducted with great care, and pains be taken to collect collateral evidence as to the means which the deceased has possessed of obtaining the necessaries of life. It must be quite evident, from the preceding remarks, that the discovery of structural disease in any organ is no proof that death has not been caused by want; yet it cannot have escaped the notice of any one who has paid attention to the reports of these cases, that there has been a great disposition to assume it as such proof. It cannot be too forcibly impressed upon the public mind, that in the majority of cases there are no specific or \mQ(\\i\\ocd\ post-mortem appearances by which death from gradual star¬ vation, and that arising from other causes, can with certainty be dis¬ tinguished. The most experienced pathological anatomist could not determine, from an examination of the dead body alone, whether a fatal case of water in the brain, consumption, or ulceration of the bowels, had been induced by poverty of diet, or had originated in natural causes. I think every medical officer of a public charity, especially if his duties lead him to visit the habitations of his patients, must be fully con¬ vinced of the existence of extreme and widely-spread distress; he must feel satisfied that a very considerable proportion of the diseases he is called upon to treat is the result of poverty and destitution, and he must be painfully sensible that his efforts to relieve them will probably be fruitless, simply because his patients cannot obtain that salutary food and clothing which are essential to their recovery and permanent restora¬ tion to health. I am quite sure, at any rate, that for no small portion of the applicants at the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary—situated certainly in one of the poorest districts of the town—a plentiful supply of nutritious o 50 food, warm clotliing and fuel, with drier and better ventilated dwellings, would be the appropriate remedies, and that without these our tonics and stimulants are prescribed in vain. The number of persons wholly unemployed, or having no regular work, and dependent on chance for subsistence, is at present lamentably great. How many of these contrive to exist has often appeared to me quite a mystery, for upon making inquiry as to the amount of their incomes, it would seem quite inadequate to provide even that scanty allowance of gruel or potatoes upon which they manage to support life. But the truth is, the poor afford great assistance to one another; they feel deep sympathy in each other’s misfortunes, and it is no uncommon thing to find a sick and destitute person nursed and maintained by neighbours scarcely less destitute than himself. It is a strange anomal}’’ to see in wealthy, civilised, Christian England, multitudes of men living in the lowest state of physical degradation, and absolutely perishing from neglect—experiencing, in fact, all the privations and precariousness of existence incident to savage life, but without the advantage of that hardy and robust constitution which confers upon savage tribes their power of endurance. Yet the fact is undeniable, that no inconsiderable portion of our fellow-creatures is living on food and in dwellings scarcely fit for brutes—certainly worse provided for than many of our domestic animals,—and that the death of numbers is accele¬ rated or indirectly produced by gradual and protracted starvation, and want of the common necessaries of life. This opinion respecting the prevalence and effects of destitution has not been hastily or recently formed; it is the result of much careful investigation, and an extensive attendance on the indigent poor, in con¬ nection with several of the largest medical institutions of the town, during a period of more than twelve years. I expressed the same opinion in a pamphlet on “The Morbid Effects of Deficiency of Food,” in 1839, and repeated it in a Report on the Sanatory Condition of the Labouring Classes in Manchester, addressed to the Poor Law Commis¬ sioners, two years ago. It must not be inferred, therefore, that this state of things is peculiar to the present time or of recent origin;—it is one which has long existed, though certainly never, within the range of my observation, to its present extent. It has long appeared to me that the public generally have no concep¬ tion of the amount of physical destitution and misery which always exists in large towns, and (probably owing to this ignorance) that, except when from any temporary increase of distress, general attention is par¬ ticularly directed to the subject,—there is neither so much sympathy shown, nor such permanent efforts made to relieve it, as in a wealthy Christian country might have been expected. People are apt to imagine that the instances of wretchedness and destitution which they hear of at 61 such periods are merely casual, and the effects of peculiar and transient circumstances. Those, however, who are in the constant habit of visiting the retired haunts of poverty know full well that this state of things is but too permanent, and that notwithstanding the amount expended on the poor by the parochial officers, by public charities, and by private individuals, the mass of unrelieved destitution and suffering is extremely great. There is occasionally much delicacy shewn on the part of the poor them¬ selves respecting their distress, and it is sometimes more difficult to arrive at a correct knowledge of their circumstances than persons unaccustomed to such investigations would suppose. I have often met with instances whei'e there was a disposition rather to conceal than make known their poverty. It is by no means uncommon, for example, for patients pur¬ posely to avoid stating this as the cause of their illness, although inter¬ rogated on the subject, until asked the direct question whether they have had suflScient food;—to which I have often received this simple, heart¬ rending reply,—“ Indeed, sir, if I must confess the truth, that’s just it; I have been long out of work, and am almost ^clemmed' to death.” 1 do not mean to deny the systematic practice of deception and imposture by a numerous body, or that many complain loudly without cause; but I affirm that those who judge of the character of the indigent classes generally from the habitual mendicant and importunate beggar, will form a vei’y erroneous and unjust opinion respecting them. Comparisons have sometimes been made between the condition of the poor in large towns and of those in rural districts, and the result having shown the decided superiority of the former in point of diet and wages, the conclusion of those who attribute their greater unhealthiness and mortality chiefly to deficiency of food and other necessaries of life, has been doubted. But it appears to me, that, in the consideration of this subject, the important fact has been overlooked, that a diet quite suffi¬ cient to maintain persons living in a salubrious district in health, is totally inadequate to support the inhabitants of a densely i)opulated town. The constant exposure of agricultural labourers to the open air, with their freedom from the noxious influences of sedentary employments, late hours, and a vitiated atmosphere, produces in them a higher standard of health. Their appetites are keen, and the quantity of food they eat is often astonishing; many of the labourers of Ireland, for instance, consume ten pounds of potatoes daily, which is nearly double what the generality of town operatives would be able to eat. The function of digestion is remarkably energetic and active, so that all the nutritive matter contained in their food is extracted and employed in nourishing the body. Then the pure air which they respire, completes so perfectly the sanguification of the chyle—that last and important process of assi. 52 milatiou—that a richer and more thoroughly vitalised blood is probably produced from their meagre diet, than is generated from the better food of a city population. Besides, in addition to the smaller and more capricious appetites of the artisans of a large town, the functions of the stomach are in them often so much impaired, and digestion is so imper¬ fectly performed, that if they live on a very impoverished diet, nutriment sufficient for the support of the body is not extracted from it. I cannot close these remarks without an allusion to the effects of the present physical destitution of the poor upon their moral and intellectual character. That the mind of a man who has been long unsuccessfully struggling against the inroads of poverty, and suffering from the bitter trials of grinding penury, should become debased and weakened, can excite no surprise. His energies naturally give way under the repetition of fruitless efforts to improve his condition; his spirits are broken; and feeling that he has no domestic comforts to lose—that he cannot descend lower in the scale of social existence—that his degradation can scarcely be increased;—his wretchedness drives him to despair, and he sinks at last into a state of mental apathy, or plunges into reckless improvidence. If, again, the depressing influences of hopeless poverty should not have the effect of hardening his feelings and blunting his sensibility, his accu¬ mulated miseries—the sight of his house without furniture, without food, without fire, and his children perhaps crying for bread, will probably have the effect of impelling him to crime or depriving him of reason; and the termination of his career—I had almost said of his misfortunes— may be sought in a prison or a lunatic asylum. The records of these establishments afford melancholy evidence of the influence of poverty in the production both of crime and insanity. Men placed in the demoralizing and harassing circumstances above described are certainly in a most unfavourable position to receive mental cultivation and instruction ; and I think every one who is practically acquainted with the state of the bulk of our poor in large towns must fully coincide in the sentiment expressed by the Bishop of London, that their present physical destitution is a powerful barrier to their moral and religious improvement. Places of worship may be built—schools esta¬ blished—ministers, teachers, and visitors appointed ; but unless at the same time means are taken to improve the social condition of the people, and supply their more pressing temporal wants—to provide them with better food and better clothing, with more salubrious and less filthy dwellings, I fear the labour will be in vain. I am. Sir, your obedient Servant, R. BARON HOWARD. Princess Street, Manchester, January, 1842. 53 I have now completed the task which I proposed to Conclusion, myself in the preparation of the foregoing pages. It formed no part of my design to suggest remedies ; be¬ cause, the state of the poor in this district affording, as it seems to me, a fair index of their state throughout the whole of the manufacturing districts, it is manifest that mere local or temporary remedies are by no means commensurate with the disease. The derangement is organic, and the remedial agency must likewise be organic; but in the present state of political feeling, any ameliorative measures which I might suggest would be in danger of exciting objection as being of a party character, and thus the attention which it has been my chief object to direct to the precise nature and extent of the existing distress, might be occupied rather in discussing the political bearing than the intrinsic efficacy of the suggested remedies. Unfortunately, however, distress is not confined at the present juncture, to the labouring population: it pervades all ranks of the productive classes,—and such is its rigorous and disorganising character, that unless speedily arrrested, England must assuredly fall away from her exalted rank, and become a jest and a by-word among the nations of the earth. 54 APPENDIX. While the foregoing pages have been passing through the press, a most unexpected and impressive confirma¬ tion of the statements which they contain has been afforded by the proceedings of the retail shopkeepers of Manchester, to which I cannot refrain from making a brief reference. meeting^^*^* A meeting of the shopkeepers, innkeepers, trades- men, and retail dealers of Manchester” was held at the Town Hall on the 16th of June last, for the purpose of making publicly known the exceedingly depressed state of their trade, and to adopt such other measures as might be deemed advisable to carry out that object.” At this meeting, (which was called upon the requisition of 233 shopkee;^ers,) the most appalling statements of commercial decay and distress were made, upon the personal experience and veracity of the speakers themselves, and also from the written communi¬ cations of other well known and respectable tradesmen. The Chairman (Mr. G. H. Winder) said— As a shopkeeper I know my own situation ; and being in communica¬ tion with many other shopkeepers, and knowing also how they are situated, I have this to say, that from their own confessions they can see nothing but ruin—almost immediate ruin—staring them in the face. How to escape it they cannot tell, Mr. Winder also read confirmatory statements from a broker and a butcher. The former said that he 55 occupied two shops the rental of which amounted to £110. per annum; and that from September last to that time (about nine months) he had not taken £15. at the two shops. The butcher said— Last Saturday scarcely a butcher in Smithfield Market saw his own money back, profit out of the question. Several hundred weights of beef, costing the butchers from 7d. to 9d. per pound, could not be sold; and on Monday, although prime rounds sold at 2§d., which cost 8d., quantities were unsold and went bad. Several of us were losers on Saturday’s market of £2. £3. or £4. eacfi, and all through meat being so dear. Mr. Heywood, a bookseller^ made statements as to the sufferings of the w'eavers, who were absolutely going out/’—dying of starvation. He said that— The difierence between his receipts now and last year was just £70. a week; and he knew some others in his trade who did not draw one-half what they received last year, and were getting absolutely into the state of the labourers, thus adding misery to those who were thus employed. Mr. William Lockett, an old and respectable in¬ habitant of Salford, gave the following statement of the comparative receipts of fifty shopkeepers in Salford:— 1839. 1841. Difference. 13 Provision dealers.. £70,700 .. £47,300 .. £23,400 14 Butchers. 27,800 .. 17,200 .. 10,600 10 Grocers. 63,800 .. 43,300 .. 20,500 13 Drapers and others 35,400 .. 22,300 .. 13,100 50 £197,700 ..£130,100 ..£67,600 Shewing a decrease of £1,300. per week. An adjourned meeting was held at the Spread Eagle Hotel, Hanging Ditch, on the 1st of this month (July,) at which further statements of a like distressing kind were made. Mr. Alexander Wilson, a furniture dealer, said that— His swing-glass maker called upon him the other night, and in the course of conversation on trade, said he had just come ofT a journey to Halifax, where he had expected £120., but had not been able to get a 56 Result of meeting. farthing. Only two years since he could have gone with a certainty of getting money, and had received as much as £120. out of £140. One of the oldest chairmakers in Manchester, who served the trade both in town and country, called on him the other night, and said that he used to sell, on an average, lOj^ dozen a week; now the trade was so bad that he had only sold two dozen and five chairs since December. Mr. Heywood made the following statement: — Four men came into his shop yesterday—and let him tell the meeting it was no pleasant thing to have four men come into one’s shop to beg at once—and he asked them why they came four at once? The reply was that they were starving; and what signified it to them to go from place to place singly: they believed that the appearance of four might influ¬ ence when one would not. He told them he believed they were right, but he asked how it was they did not hold meetings, and make known their distress? Their answer was—‘‘If you, Mr. Heywood, will place yourself at our head, we will go with you for anything—the destruction of property or aught else.” Mr. Gadsby, letter-press printer, said he had been round to some of the shopkeepers in Market-street and Deansgate, and their accounts of trade were truly appalling:—= There w^as one gentleman, a hatter, who paid a rent of £100. a year, declared that the amount of his receipts on Saturday were only 16s. His receipts on the preceding Saturday were only 14s. During three days of the week preceding that, the total receipts of his shop were 2s. Resolutions declaratory of the existence of unexam¬ pled distress, and of the utter hopelessness of improve¬ ment without legislative interference, w^ere carried, and a deputation appointed to wait upon Sir Robert Pee] and such other members of her Majesty’s Govern- ment and Members of Parliament as may be prac- ticable, to lay before them, on behalf of the shop- keepers and traders of the borough, the appalling facts which have come to their knowledge of the “ state of trade, and which are so undeniably mani- fest, and to entreat them to adopt some means that shall give immediate and permanent relief.” Cave and Sevek, Printers, Pool Fold, Manchester.