Anon., ‘The History of the Cotton Famine, from the Fall of Sumter to the Passing of the Public Works Act’

In this long review of a book by R. A. Arnold on the famine, the anonymous writer seems much too sanguine about England’s response. The piece mythologises the event with rather reverential language, though admitting that a strong centralised response from the government and the Poor Law Commission should have happened sooner rather than the haphazard and inadequate response from the local guardians and private charity. A power equal to three hundred thousand horses drove the machinery, which the quick eyes and active fingers governed and guided. A riot that at one time threatened to be serious, though the chief culprits were boys and youth, occurred at Staleybridge soon afterwards, but it was quelled without bloodshed, and with but few casualties. Some of the mill-owners showed themselves mean and hard, and some tried to take advantage of the return of work to get their men at reduced wages.