se than the shortage in cotton caused by the war[679].

But it was far otherwise with the operatives of Lancashire. Whatever the
causes of short-time operation in the mills or of total cessation of
work the situation was such that from October, 1861, more and more
operatives were thrown out of employment. As their little savings
disappeared they were put upon public poor relief or upon private
charity for subsistence. The governmental statistics do not cover,
accurately, the relief offered by private charity, but those of public
aid well indicate the loss of wage-earning opportunity. In the so-called
"Distressed Districts" of Lancashire and the adjoining counties it
appears that poor relief was given to 48,000 persons in normal times,
out of a total population of 2,300,000. In the first week of November,
1861, it was 61,207, and for the first week of December, 71,593;
thereafter mounting steadily until March, 1862, when a temporary peak of
113,000 was reached. From March until the first week in June there was a
slight decrease; but from the second week of June poor relief resumed an
upward trend, increasing rapidly until December, 1862, when it reached
its highest point of 284,418. In this same first week of December
private relief, now thoroughly organized in a great national effort, was
extended to 236,000 people, making a grand total at high tide of
distress of over 550,000 persons, if private relief was not extended to
those receiving public funds. But of this differentiation there is no
surety--indeed there are evidences of much duplication of effort in
certain districts. In general, however, these statistics do exhibit the
great lack of employment in a one-industry district heretofore enjoying
unusual prosperity[680].

The manufacturing operative population of the district was estimated at
between 500,000 and 600,000. At the time of greatest distress some
412,000 of these were receiving either public or private aid, though
many were working part-time in the mills or were engaged on public
enterprises set on foot to ease the crisis. But there was no starvation
and it is absurd to compare the crisis to the Irish famine of the
'forties. This was a _cotton_ famine in the shortage of that commodity,
but it was not a _human_ famine. The country, wrote John Bright, was
passing through a terrible crisis, but "our people will be kept alive by
the contributions of the country[681]." Nevertheless a rapid change from
a condi