TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CLOUD IN LANCASHIRE.
THE Times of Saturday last contained a letter from Mr. Bridges, a physician residing in Bradford, which has, with good reason, attracted an unusual amount of attention. A little bitter in tone, and, we suspect, somewhat careless in his statement of facts, the writer reveals a truth which for weeks has been patent to observant Lancashire men. There is danger ahead in the county. Patient and keen observers, whose prejudices, if they have any, are rather against the workmen, admit privately what they will soon say aloud, that the long-anticipated result is arriving fast, that the tension produced by the distress is lasting too long for the moral health of the people, that both the recipients and the distri- butors of relief are slowly becoming demoralized, and that symptoms appear on every hand of that worst English cala- mity—a war between class and class. For months the mass of the sufferers behaved with admirable discretion and fortitude. They disliked asking relief, took a pride in diminishing its amount, and felt an honest gratitude for the sympathy which welled up on every side. As the distress continued, however, the result which invariably follows charity, and almost makes thinkers question whether benevolence can be a virtue, made its tardy appearance. The alms at first received -with a sense of humiliation, were soon asked for, then jealously scrutinized, then demanded in tones which had more or less of menace. Idleness gave scope for criticism, criticism hardened into querulousness, and querulousness produced discontent, in the midst of which the old fallacies were once more half accepted. Why should this national calamity fall on the capitalist so much more lightly than on the labourer? "He loses profits, we our livelihood. He cuts off luxuries, we our bread. We, at the worst, must starve ; he, at the worst, is only a poorer man." On the other hand the Relief Committees deteriorated almost as fast as the relieved. At first nothing could exceed their kindness and sympathy ; it was necessary even to check them from too careful investigations, from try- ing to discriminate too closely the varying grades of deserving. Then came the period of weariness with the unaccustomed labour of distribution, and the effort to diminish it by accumulating formal rules, then the mental dyspepsia caused by incessant cases of deception and trickery and idleness, and finally the savage temper always produced by imagined class ingratitude. The committees grew harsh and imperious, ceased in some cases to investigate, in others surrounded themselves with offensive precautions, such as stamping all clothes given out—a plan the more offensive, because the clothes were subscribed as gifts—in others, applied the labour test with an insulting severity, and in all began to use harder and less sympathetic words. The Lancashire men were not used to be talked to as suppliants are talked to everywhere, and the resentment of those below as usual made those above put on their social armour—that chilling reserve which is impenetrable alike to abuse or to sneer.
The consequence has been most disastrous. The two classes have begun to assume an attitude not widely distinct from hos- tility. That grown men were ever locked up in school, except under most exceptional circumstances, no man who knows Lancashire will for a moment believe. No hinges blacksmith ever forged would have borne the consequences. But this form of the labour test was applied a great deal too sharply, and with- out sufficient discrimination as to age, and the remainder of Mr. Bridges' statements are, we fear, only within the truth. The clothes were stamped, when given to the most respecteble persons, with the word "lent," the people were tormented by excessively long waiting, and the language of too many com- mittee-men was repelling to the last degree. The faults of the worst and smallest section were assumed as the faults of all. Men only craving for work, and men who regard idleness as enjoyment, were equally condemned for not seeking work, which, if obtained, they in many cases could not have done. That lecturing instinct which is the disease of English middle-class women, broke out in all its ferocity, and as usual destroyed all that remained of gratitude for assistance rendered. People can bear it from those who give of their own, but not from those who distribute the liberality of others; and those who have been well off, are starving, and have been waiting hours for relief, are not in the fittest temper for essays on all practical virtues except benevolence. The men out of work have begun to consider themselves "op- pressed," and an oppressed Lancashire man has in him a power of nursing his wrath to white heat which is apt, be- sides other consequences, to add to the harshness pro- voked by ingratitude the harshness produced by fear. At places like Ashton, where the relief system presses most hardly, the operatives have held meetings to denounce the com- mittees, the labour test, and the "indifference of Govern- ment to their necessities." One speaker "could not sleep for thinking of two shillings a week,' and a second wanted Govern- ment to vote them eight millions. Another described his class as men who were "trampled on," and all sympathized with really dangerous stuff about their right to refuse pay- ment of rent. Mr. Stephens, the minister who spoke at Staleybridge, has been unfairly abused for asking whether the clothes belonged to the committees or to the men. Con- sidering that they were sent for the sufferers, that is a point at all events open to argument, and the indiscriminate brand was a measure of very doubtful expediency. But his speech about rent struck at the very root of the right to property. No distress can cancel a legal or moral right. The proprietor who in such times claims rent from half-starving men may be a brute ; but he has a right to it none the less, and the utmost he could justly be compelled to do would be to afford time for payment. Suppose, as is constantly the case, he is himself insolvent except for these rents, and his creditors are men as paralyzed as the operatives, are they to be deprived of their due because the demand is hard upon others ? Honest men will, should the day of high rents come round, pay up their arrears, as they would a debt for fire or flour. The landlord has as much right as the butcher, whom nobody asks to keep on supplying, yet write off sup- plies as so many bad debts. If Mr. Stephens meant that the relief funds should pay the rent, he employed his words very carelessly ; but if he meant that it should not of right be paid at all, his advice was identical with counsel to plunder the next baker's shop. The mass of the operatives will, we believe, shrink from . open injustice like this ; but the continued receipt of alms, the insufficiency of the relief to remove the irritating sense of discomfort, the imprudence of many committees, and the harshness of a few, have produced a state of feeling which no words will affect. The country must act, and that quickly, unless we want to see Tipperary in Lancashire. the rich living in terror and the poor upon plans of violehce, the cities kept quiet by soldiers and the county covered by wandering gangs. So long as the relief funds last, the grow- ing bitterness and discontent will probably evaporate in angry discussion and an occasional riot; but those funds, unless unexpectedly increased, will in September be almost ex- hausted, and when once thrown on the rates alone, the bitterness of the suffering class will be exasperated by want and by the apparent absence of sympathy, till all other feelings will be swallowed up in a burning envy of those who can still live without alms, or plunging in hopeless debt. Suffer- ing makes all men unjust, and suffering among commu,nities means always a revolt, more or less open, against the rich. The most immediate and pressing of our internal difficulties is to prevent any such catastrophe in the North. There are substantially two proposals to avert the evil at present before the public, and seriously though privately discussed. Wild projects there are, of course, in plenty, the pigeon-boles of the Home Office and the Times newspaper are probably full of them; but only two of all as yet suggested have a chance of a hearing. The one is to consider the distress permanent, and assist the operative to transfer his skill to other lands; the other to regard it for one more year as temporary, and relieve it by taxing Lancashire. The first is supported by Mr. Cobden, by the Times, by public opinion, and by a large section of the operatives; the other by the millowners, by most statesmen, and by the majority of the men.
The argument for emigration lies on the surface. It can be accomplished for a definite sum, will benefit the colo- nies, and will permanently remove the distress by removing its principal cause. It was the remedy which saved Ireland under similar circumstances, and which, should the cotton famine continue, must ultimately be adopted. Its tendency, moreover, is to decrease permanently the proportion of labour - to work, and therefore to increase permanently the mini- mum rate of wages. On the other hand, if carried out on a scale adequate to the need, it will ruin the cotton trade, involve, in all probability, its transfer to other localities, and Certainly confiscate the enormous fixed capital which has been sunk in Lancashire. The higher class of artificers cannot be replaced in a year. An immigration of labourers might fill their houses; but could not replace the deft fing5d softened and rendered sensitire often by generations of taw° log. These higher classes are just those which have most confidence in themselves, and are, therefore, more likely to emigrate. Long before their place could be filled up the trade would have betaken itself to countries likeefor instance, India, where labour was procurable in any amount. A smaller deprivation of labour, through the Edict of Nantes, permanently impoverished France. Even if the transfer were only to the next county, to the midst of the operatives who, as wool-spinners, have learnt most of the processes, the capital invested in buildings would all be thrown away. No nation, except in extremity, ought voluntarily to encounter such a loss, and no class like the millowners can be expected knowingly to lend their aid to such a deliberate suicide. The plan on the moderate scale ensured by private subscriptions might be beneficial ; but to apply the relief funds to it would be impolitic, and a national grant disastrous. Further relief, on the other hand, is, of course, a question of time, for Lancashire deprived of its industry could not for long support its swarms ; but it can for one more year, the space of time during which it may be made clear whether the American contest is to be protracted for a generation or end like an ordinary war. An application to the consolidated fund is repudiated on all hands, and we think with real though some- what over cold prudence. Parliament could not undertake, for a single trade, to fix so many thousands of people to spots from which the means of subsistence have fled. The work, if done at all, must be done by Lancashire, and, as soon as a period is fixed, is not beyond its means. For one year the unions should borrow largely, and largely relax their rules, and should only demand the help of the State to raise the money cheaply. They might borrow the amount from the Treasury, or even, though the plan is more dangerous, receive an Im- perial guarantee. When the day of settlement comes the difference between 5 and 31- per cent, will be keenly felt. Speed, too, is essential, .as every day during which the loan can be postponed is a day gained towards the time when the cotton bales in the South will be released, or India be prepared with a double or treble sup- ply. Every year, moreover, diminishes the pressure, by the natural drifting away of fragments of labour to other fields. The man with a brother in Tennessee goes out to try his fate in .New York, the man with a friend in London goes off to try his hand on some new trade. Time is all in favour of the trade, if the labour can only be kept together, and to give up the struggle an hour too soon is to throw away all the chances the future has always in reserve. It is, of course, to be borne in mind that another year of relief will intensify demoralization, and may, if not wisely employed, produce most disastrous results. But statesmen have rarely anything be- fore them but a choice of evils ; the demoralization may be checked by a wise and kindly, though of necessity strict ad- ministration, and in that choice the balance of evidence weighed without prejudices or secret interests seems in favour of judicious delay.
Previous page
