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GEORGE PEABODY.

National Committee, and the queen will be solicited as Duchess of Lancaster to allow her name to appear as its patron. An energetic effort will then be made to cover the whole kingdom with local committees, and then institute a general canvas for subscriptions. By this means we may keep matters in tolerable order till Parliament meets, but there is a growing opinion that we shall have to apply to parliament for imperial aid. People at a distance, who learn that the poor-rates in Lancashire are even now less than they are in ordinary times in the agricultural districts, cannot understand this helplessness and destitution. They do not perceive how exceptional this state of things is. Lancashire, with its machinery stopped, is like a man in a fainting fit. It would be as rational to attempt to draw money from the one as blood from the other. Or it may be compared to a strong man suddenly struck with paralysis; until the use of his limbs and muscles be restored to him, it is useless to tell him to help himself."

We have seen what had then been done to increase poor-law relief. In September, 1862, twenty-four poor-law unions in the distressed districts afforded out-door relief to 140,165 persons, at a weekly cost of £7922, which represented aid to 100,000 persons in excess of the relief of the corresponding period of the previous year. On the week ending 27th of December the want was far more excessive, the relief lists showing the alarming total of 496,816 persons dependent on charitable or parochial funds, while the loss of wages was estimated at about £168,000 per week.

Happily the fund for the relief of the sufferers was well supported, not only by noble and wealthy donors-among whom were the queen, who gave £2000, and the Viceroy of Egypt, who gave £1000 during his visit to London-but by the people themselves-shopkeepers, employés, and even agricultural labourers, who contributed pence from their own small and hardly-earned wages. It should not be forgotten either that substantial aid and expressions of sympathy came to Lancashire from various parts of Europe, and that the Northern States of America were not behindhand in significant expressions of good

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will, which took the shape of consignments of provisions and other additions to the fund. This act of generosity amidst their own troubles and anxieties, and when their own fields lay fallow and their own manufactures were still for want of the hands that were engaged in the deadly struggle, was afterwards warmly remembered, as, indeed, it deserved to be; and though for a time it had little appreciable effect in mitigating the rancorous declamations of a section of the public on both sides, it doubtless had a very decided influence in the ultimate restoration of reasonable and friendly feelings, and contributed greatly to the mutual good understanding that ensued, notwithstanding the affair of the Alabama and the "claims" that were so long a bone of contention between the two countries.

It is not out of place to note also, that, in the midst of the conflict of opinion and the increasing distress in the early days of 1862, Mr. George Peabody, a wealthy American merchant in London, announced that it was his intention to give £100,000 for the benefit of the poor of this metropolis. Mr. Peabody was a native of Danvers, in the State of Massachusetts. He was born on February 18, 1795; his parents were in humble circumstances, and his early education was acquired at the district "common school." At the age of eleven he was placed in a grocer's store in Danvers, in which situation he spent four years. After a year's rural life with his grandfather in Vermont he went to Newburyport, Massachusetts, as clerk to his elder brother, who had opened a dry-goods shop there. He afterwards was in business with his uncle at Georgetown, district of Columbia, for two years. In 1814 he withdrew from this concern and became a partner with Mr. Elisha Riggs in the dry-goods trade, Mr. Riggs furnishing the capital and Mr. Peabody the business talent. In 1815 the house was removed to Baltimore, and in 1822 branch houses were established in Philadelphia and New York. In 1827 Mr. Peabody crossed the Atlantic for the first time to purchase goods. In 1829 he became senior partner by the retirement of Mr. Riggs. On several occasions of his visits to England he was intrusted with important

financial negotiations by the State of Mary- | of Earl Russell. On the occasion which has land. Early in 1837 he took up his residence in England. In 1843 he withdrew from the concern of Peabody, Riggs, & Co., and founded a banking-house in London. In the crisis of 1837 he rendered valuable assistance towards the maintenance of American credit in England. The banking-house he established became the headquarters of his countrymen resident in or passing through London and the centre of American news. His Fourth of July dinners at the "Star and Garter," Richmond, soon became public events, and served to bring English and American gentlemen together in agreeable intercourse. In 1852, at the bicentenary anniversary of his native town, he sent a cheque for 20,000 dols. to be expended in the founding of a lyceum and library for the town. By subsequent donations this sum was raised to 60,000 dols., aud the institution was opened in or about 1857 with great éclat. In the latter year he gave to certain citizens of Baltimore the sum of 500,000 dols. to found an institute in that city for the promotion of science, literature, and the fine arts, the opening of which was retarded by the civil war in America.

Mr. Peabody was presented with the freedom of the city of London in recognition of his munificent gift. He afterwards added another £50,000 to it, and received a letter of thanks from the queen for his “more than princely munificence." Her majesty would have conferred upon him either a baronetcy or the Grand Cross of the order of the Bath; but that she understood he felt himself debarred from accepting such distinctions. It only remained, therefore, for the queen to give Mr. Peabody the assurance of her personal feelings, which she further wished to mark by asking him to accept a miniature-portrait of herself, which she desired to have painted, and which, when finished, was either to be sent to him to America, or to be given to him on his return to the country which owed him so much. Mr. Peabody replied: "Madam, I feel seriously my inability to express in adequate terms the gratification with which I have read the letter which your majesty has done me the high honour of transmitting by the hands

attracted your majesty's attention, of setting apart a portion of my property to ameliorate the condition and augment the comforts of the poor in London, I have been actuated by a deep sense of gratitude to God who has blessed me with prosperity, and of attachment to this great country, where, under your majesty's benign rule, I have received so much personal kindness and enjoyed so many years of happiness. Next to the approval of my own conscience I shall always prize the assurance which your majesty's letter conveys to me of the approbation of the Queen of England, whose whole life has attested that her exalted station has in no degree diminished her sympathy with the humblest of her subjects. The portrait which your majesty is graciously pleased to bestow on me I shall value as the most precious heirloom that I can leave in the land of my birth, where, together with the letter which your majesty has addressed to me, it will ever be regarded as an evidence of the kindly feeling of the Queen of the United Kingdom to a citizen of the United States." The American war had concluded when this letter was written, and above two years afterwards, in December, 1868, Mr. Peabody, who had returned from America, once more gave £100,000, bringing the total sum to the superb amount of £250,000. Shortly afterwards he gave another million of dollars to his American Southern education fund. In October of the following year this liberal benefactor died at the residence of his friend, Sir Curtis Lampson. He was seventy-five years of age, and under his will he had left an additional amount for the benefit of the London poor, making altogether a total of half a million sterling. His remains were placed in Westminster Abbey previous to being conveyed on board one of her majesty's ships to his birth-place in America. The large sum of money, which was placed in the hands of trustees for providing suitable dwellings for the London poor, appears to have been chiefly devoted, it is true,

1 This was in 1866; Lord John Russell took his seat in the House of Lords in July, 1861, as Earl Russell of Kingston-Russell in Dorset and Viscount Amberley of Ardsalla in Meath.

MEANS FOR ALLEVIATING DISTRESS-COTTON SUPPLY.

to the purpose of building substantial houses on a model plan, and on a plan which will yield a certain dividend for the maintenance of the scheme; but it can scarcely be contended that the actually poor inhabitants of London, or those who need benevolent aid, are those who have been chiefly benefited, since the trust has rather been devoted to the provision of convenient and well-constructed tenements for those decent tenants who can afford to pay a fair amount of rental. Doubtless some good may have been effected by thus enabling respectable mechanics and working people to obtain sound sanitary and reasonably rated dwellings; but whether this kind of speculative provision quite represents the intentions of the philanthropic donor is perhaps a question which the trustees and their representatives can best answer.

Mr. Peabody's splendid gift of course had nothing to do with the relief of distress in Lancashire, to which he was also no doubt a liberal contributor, but it had much significance in representing the good feeling which continued to exist between numbers of thoughtful Americans and unbiassed Englishmen. The efforts made for the special object of diminishing the sufferings of the people during the cotton famine were numerous and well sustained. Nor were they confined to mere contributions or subscriptions. They included many personal endeavours, among the most directly useful of which were those of Mrs. Gladstone, who during the first months of the calamity visited the districts where the need was greatest, and while practically assisting to alleviate the wants of those who were on the spot had a number of the men conveyed to Hawarden, where they were employed in making new roads and paths in the park. She also established at Hawarden an industrial home for distressed Lancashire girls.

Numerous endeavours of a similar kind were made in the suffering districts, and it is to be remarked that though the painful effects of the cotton famine were felt long after the American war was over and the mills were at work again, that time of trial had not been barren in good results, so that we may well believe it proved of incalculable

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after benefit to the whole population of the districts where its lesson had been patiently learnt. One of the most striking features of the time was the remarkable diminution in the number of deaths and the improvement in the health of the majority of the people, even in those districts where the distress was most severely felt. This has been attributed to enforced temperance; it may have been also partially attributable to a period of temporary rest. It should be noted, however, that means were taken for providing interesting occupation. Schools were established for the instruction not only of children but of adults, numbers of whom willingly devoted their now unemployed time to acquire the instruction which in their younger days they had never been able to attain. Sewing-schools for women and girls were also opened in all parts of the manufacturing districts. Numbers were there taught how to make and to mend various garments, and carried the practical knowledge gained in these schools into their homes. The organization for relieving want went hand in hand with efforts for providing occupations which would keep the people from brooding over their trouble, and be useful to them in their daily lives.

During the whole time that the dearth of cotton continued the government and many wealthy and enterprising individuals were using efforts to promote the growth of the plant in India and other British dependencies, so that we might not hereafter be wholly dependent on one source of supply. Some advances were also made in the introduction of improved machinery for preparing and cleaning the fibre; and railways and means of transit from the manufacturing districts to the seaports were still further developed. To the East and West Indies, New Zealand, Queensland-and outside the British empire, Brazil-consumers of cotton were looking not without hope that in the future, if not immediately, large supplies might be brought from those places. Of course the supply increased but slowly, or rather absolute cessation of supply was only prevented by these means, especially as nothing came from the African cotton-fields when prices had considerably

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increased. The native growers there had no notion of working except when compelled; and the increased amount which they received when they conveyed the produce of their plantations to the shore enabled them to settle down to enjoyment—or what passed for it in their estimation--and to leave the fields untilled and unsown. The staple at mills which resumed work was the Surat; and though this was of inferior quality, dirty, and difficult to manufacture, it was so much better than none at all that the people who could obtain employment were delighted at being able to maintain their independence, and to leave the relief funds for the large number who were necessarily supported by charitable efforts.

Among the institutions which were already in existence and served both at the time and afterwards to mitigate the effects of such a sudden and protracted arrest of a great industry occupying a large district, should be noticed those societies in which the principles of cooperation had been adopted and had proved successful. The co-operative societies of Rochdale had not, it is true, had many imitators, nor did it then seem as though the scheme which they had adopted was likely to find much extension in other parts of England and amidst other industries; but the circumstances of the distress in Lancashire and the survival during the cotton famine of the original associations whose members had so long benefited by the provisions of the system, attracted public attention to the question. Since that time co-operative societies in one form or other have been regarded as valuable means for securing the mutual advantages of their members, and in London, societies embracing one branch of the original institutions have been organized in a manner which has more than once threatened to change. the entire method of business previously adopted by retail traders in the metropolis.

It scarcely needs to be said that the actual or representative co-operative association includes not only a common interest in the sale and profits of necessary commodities required by the members, but in the industry in which the members are employed and by the success

of which they live. Such a notion was in the minds of many men even after the acceleration of political progress and the folly and ignorance of self-elected leaders had put an end to Chartism. Among the people who had looked at the indefinite promises of communistic or socialistic leaders there were many who saw much possible reality in them. That some such experiments had failed long before, when they were associated with political agitation or with certain suspected philosophies or social vagaries, was no proof that the cooperative principle might not be commercially sound. As a matter of fact it already necessarily existed, where a number of people were engaged in different work and held different degrees of importance to promote the same enterprise. In 1873 Carlyle had given expression to the thought, or one might rather say the question which was being discussed elsewhere among a few serious men. "Whether," as he puts it, "in some ulterior, perhaps some not far distant stage of the 'chivalry of labour' your master worker may not find it possible, and needful, to grant his workers permanent interest in his enterprise and theirs? So that it become in practical result, what in essential fact and justice it ever is, a joint enterprise; all men, from the chief master down to the lowest overseer and operative, economically as well as loyally concerned for it? Which question I do not answer. The answer near, or else far, is perhaps: yes;and yet we know the difficulties. Despotism is essential in most enterprises: I am told they do not tolerate 'freedom of debate' on board a seventy-four! Republican senate and plébiscite would not answer well in cotton mills. And yet observe there too, freedom, not nomad's or ape freedom, but man's freedom, this is indispensable. We must have it and will have it! To reconcile despotism with-well, is that such a mystery? Do you not already know the way? It is to make your despotism just. Rigorous as destiny; but just too as destiny and its laws. The laws of God: all men obey these, and have no freedom at all but in obeying them. The way is already known, part of the way; and courage and some qualities are needed for walking in it."

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.

This is Carlylese, but it needs little translation in reference to a movement, some of the 'permanent effects of which were apparent at the time of the cotton famine twenty years afterwards. That movement began in the latter part of 1843 in an association which had theoretically in view wider results than those that were to be effected by merely commercial or industrial co-operation. The first programme of the founders of the co-operative system at Rochdale included a provision "that as soon as practicable this society shall proceed arrange the powers of production, distribution, education, and government; or in other words to establish a self-supporting homecolony of united interests to assist other societies in establishing such colonies." Some of this may seem visionary, but there was enough of sound and solid fact remaining after what was merely visionary had disappeared, and when this and other co-operative associations which had been established on its experiences were consolidated and working, but not too freely, under the "Friendly Societies Act" of 1852.

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Various abortive attempts had been made from time to time to realize the ideas on which the co-operative societies were founded, but they had failed, chiefly through the moral and industrial defects of those by whom they were tried. At length an attempt was made at Rochdale by men who, though extremely poor and almost destitute of book-learning, were endowed with the qualifications necessary for carrying the enterprise they undertook to a successful issue.

The example thus set was followed in all the large towns of the manufacturing districts. But we shall best comprehend the nature of this great movement by fixing our attention on the origin and progress of the Rochdale society, which served as a pattern to the rest, by whom its rules and methods were almost exactly copied. It was, as we have noted, at the close of the year 1843 that the Rochdale Equitable Pioneer's Co-operative Store was first established. The new poor-law had prevented the working men of that town from looking, as they had previously been accustomed to do, to parochial relief as a resource

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on which, in case of loss of work, they might always fall back. The failure of the Rochdale savings-bank, recently plundered by its actuary to the extent of £70,000, had destroyed all faith in that hitherto popular institution. It was under these circumstances that twentyeight Rochdale flannel-weavers managed to scrape together a sovereign each for the purpose of establishing a shop in which they might purchase genuine groceries and other necessaries at a moderate price, dividing among themselves whatever profits might remain at the end of the year. The views by which they were actuated are very clearly exhibited in an account which they afterwards published of the lofty aims with which they made this very humble experiment.

"The objects of this society are the social and intellectual advancement of its members. It provides them with groceries, butcher'smeat, drapery goods, clothes, shoes, clogs, &c. There are competent workmen on the premises to do the work of the members and execute all repairs. The capital is raised in one pound shares, each member being allowed to take not less than five and not more than a hundred, payable at once or by instalments of three shillings and threepence per quarter. The profits are divided quarterly as follows: first, interest at five per cent per annum on all paid-up shares; second, two and a half per cent off net profits for educational purposes; the remainder to be divided among the members in proportion to money expended. For the intellectual improvement of the members there is a library consisting of more than 3000 volumes. The librarian is in attendance every Wednesday and Saturday evening from seven to half-past eight o'clock. The news-room is well supplied with newspapers and periodicals, fitted up in a neat and careful manner, and furnished with maps, globes, microscope, telescope, &c. The news-room and library are free to all members. A branch reading-room has been opened at Oldham Road, the readers of which meet every second Monday in January, April, July, and October, to choose and sell the papers."

Whatever may have been the opinions of those who strongly objected to the system of

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