s that the poor-rate was, taking the average, twice
as high as in 1839, and that the number of persons requiring relief has
trebled, even quintupled, since that time; that a multitude of applicants
belong to a class which had never before solicited relief; that the
working-class commands more than two-thirds less of the means of
subsistence than from 1834-1836; that the consumption of meat had been
decidedly less, in some places twenty per cent., in others reaching sixty
per cent. less; that even handicraftsmen, smiths, bricklayers, and
others, who usually have full employment in the most depressed periods,
now suffered greatly from want of work and reduction of wages; and that,
even now, in January, 1843, wages are still steadily falling. And these
are the reports of manufacturers! The starving workmen, whose mills were
idle, whose employers could give them no work, stood in the streets in
all directions, begged singly or in crowds, besieged the sidewalks in
armies, and appealed to the passers-by for help; they begged, not
cringing like ordinary beggars, but threatening by their numbers, their
gestures, and their words. Such was the state of things in all the
industrial districts, from Leicester to Leeds, and from Manchester to
Birmingham. Here and there disturbances arose, as in the Staffordshire
potteries, in July. The most frightful excitement prevailed among the
workers until the general insurrection broke out throughout the
manufacturing districts in August. When I came to Manchester in
November, 1842, there were crowds of unemployed working-men at every
street corner, and many mills were still standing idle. In the following
months these unwilling corner loafers gradually vanished, and the
factories came into activity once more.

To what extent want and suffering prevail among these unemployed during
such a crisis, I need not describe. The poor-rates are insufficient,
vastly insufficient; the philanthropy of the rich is a rain-drop in the
ocean, lost in the moment of falling, beggary can support but few among
the crowds. If the small dealers did not sell to the working-people on
credit at such times as long as possible--paying themselves liberally
afterwards, it must be confessed--and if the working-people did not help
each other, every crisis would remove a multitude of the surplus through
death by starvation. Since, however, the most depressed period is brief,
lasting, at worst, but one, two, or two an