PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. 6 THE HISTORY OF THE COTTON FAMINE' should be a welcome chapter in the annals of our country, for it records one of the greatest of our national triumphs. The period to which I have carried the history in this volume, may be considered the termination of the Famine.' The succeeding winter and spring were marked by severe distress, which indeed still prevails in certain localities, —but the improving condition of the markets, the great decrease of indigence as compared with that of the winter season of 1862, and the salutary influence of the Union Relief Aid and the Public Works Acts, suggest that the crisis had been passed at the close of the Session of 1863. Much that would be an iteration of the doings and sufferings of 1862 remains to be told. Yet it would not be an uninteresting progress to follow the revival of this great industry, from these times, so exceptional in all their circumstances, to the full re-establishment of the cotton manufacture upon a broader and surer foundation than it has ever yet occupied. I am confident that the restoration of this manufacture is not far distant. Nor can I see any reason to suppose that the great increase of working power which has been added during the years of Famine, is larger than the world's demand will furnish with employment. That this extension is calculated to depreciate manufacturing profits, there can be little doubt; and I apprehend that no one, well acquainted with the district, has failed to perceive that unless invention makes rapid advance, the manufacture will be crippled for want of labour. The Appendix to this volume includes copies of the Union Relief Aid and Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Acts, together with the Manual of the Central Executive Committee, and a Report by Mr. Rawlinson, C.E., showing the purposes to which the loans borrowed under the provisions of the Public Works Act are now being applied. Of these public works-which engage my official labours-it is well known that great as are the benefits that have attended their progress, even these are very inferior to the advantages which will be permanently secured by their completion. I cannot but be conscious of having failed to do justice to the charitable efforts of individuals both within and outside the district. A long-drawn record of their names and their good deeds might have made my pages more illustrious, but I have a strong conviction that such are not those who will censure the preference for matter more instructive and historical. I am very much indebted to the distinguished gentlemen-the Special Commissioner and the Government Engineer—with whom I have the pleasure of being associated in Her Majesty's Service. To Mr. Maclure, the Honorary Secretary of the Central Relief Committee; to Mr. Gibbs, the Secretary of the Mansion House Committee, as well as to many other gentlemen, I owe the acknowledgment of valuable information. R. ARTHUR ARNOLD. MANCHESTER: July 1864. THE HISTORY OF THE COTTON FAMINE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. LONG before Eve span,-long before Lancashire was dry land, or the Mersey a river, the Manufacturing Districts were being prepared to become the home of a great industry. Geology is the parent of geography. When Dr. Buckland, in commencing his Bridgewater Treatise, started his three travellers upon three imaginary diagonals, drawn from the south-western to the north-eastern shores of the kingdom, the route of the second lay across the coal-fields from the Tamar to the Tyne. Rightly enough did he suppose that such a traveller would regard England as nothing else than a stupendous manufactory. It is not then mere chance which centres a particular industry in a particular locality; there are always favouring circumstances, if not indispensable conditions, sufficient to account for such a concentration. To roll back the history of our island to the time when the coal-measures, and all the carboniferous group of strata were deposited, is indeed a task impossible to man. The foot-prints on the sandrocks, the leaf-prints in the coal-beds, hidden from all touch of life since the foundation of the world, these are B our mute instructors-these proclaim to us that most certain limitation of our knowledge concerning the work of Creation. The district with which this history is concerned, is also remarkable in its natural features, for its especial adaptability to the manufacture of an exotic raw material. If the primeval restlessness of this portion of the earth's crust had not upheaved some of the older and harder strata to the surface-if the chalk of Kent or the sand of Norfolk had here superimposed, the streams which fed the infant industry of Lancashire would never have existed. These streams owe their perennial supplies to the geological features, and the geographical position of the district. The elevation of most of the towns in this part of the kingdom is very considerable. Even Manchester is 120 feet above the sea-level; Bolton is 200 feet higher than the Cotton Metropolis, and superior elevation generally ensures increased rainfall. London is 50 feet above the level of the sea, and endures an average rainfall of 24-8 inches. Manchester prefers a damp atmosphere for her spinning-rooms and weaving-sheds, and rejoices in a rainfall of 37.3 inches; while Bolton, in consideration of standing so much higher in the world than either, is drenched with 49.5 inches per annum. Greater still is the rainfall upon the hills around Glossop, and still greater is the moisture in the mountainous region upon the Cumberland border. In the neighbourhood of Windermere, the rainfall in 1860 equalled 102.58 inches. Lying on the western coast, the cotton manufacturing districts are exposed to the aqueous vapours of the Northern Atlantic, where the union of the heated Gulf Stream with the Arctic waters envelopes Newfoundland in perpetual fog, and produces the rain-clouds which are so often an unwelcome sight upon our western horizon. This unusually large supply of water-power was among the first causes of the pre-eminence of this district in the cotton manufacture. Its surface, very varied in altitude, is grooved by the hand of Nature in deep channels, worn in strata, generally impermeable, which collect the rainwater, and gather it into manageable streams. With what patient devotion these streams have given themselves to the prosperity of Lancashire! Merrily they rippled over |