ABSTRACT
I N the ten years ending 1861 the population of the Preston union increased fourteen per cent, and that of the borough nineteen per cent. Of this population thirty-two per cent of the adults were engaged in the cotton manufacture, and twenty-two per cent in mechanical arts and trades, and in domestic service. In May, 1862, there were twelve thousand and seven looms idle, out of a total of twenty-seven thousand one hundred and forty-eight, whilst about eight thousand others were working only three or four clays per week. Out of one thousand two hundred and sixtyseven mules, six hundred and four were standing, and three hundred and eighty-two working short time. The number of hands out of employment was given at this date, by the relief committee, as ten thousand seven hundred and thirty-one; who, with their dependants, would amount to about twenty-two thousand persons. The out-door paupers in 1861 were three thousand one hundred and seventy ; whilst in April, 1862, they had risen to ten thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, being an increase of two hundred and forty-three per cent, and they were still rapidly increasing; and the relief committee's books contained at the same date the names of nearly seventeen thousand persons. Many of these were cases where the guardians' relief was supplemented, and it is therefore difficult to get at the total number who were in receipt of relief. The board of guardians were actively promoting employment for their dependants, and had about one thousand men at work levelling and improving "the moor," one hundred
at " the marsh," and one hundred and fifty at the "stone yard." The approach to Preston by railway from Manchester is very beautiful, and the labour of the cotton operatives has added in no small degree to its interest, by laying out a large plot of land on the river bank as public walks and gardens; and admirers of the Kibble scenery in future generations will remember with plea-- sure the gift of the benevolent donor, and the work of the poor vic-- tims of the cotton famine. These men were working each two days' per week at one shilling per day ; and this labour, by making them feel that they were usefully occupied, kept up their spirits, and made them bear their privations even with cheerfulness. The men of Preston knew how to bear trouble, for in 1856 they had inflicted half-a-year's starvation upon themselves and families by a strike, during which they did not fare even so well as at the present time under the relief committee and the poor-law guardians.
