Thy manly form hath passed away,
Thy sun has set ere close of day.
A sable curtain drawn around
Now tells us thou art under ground;
No more thy watchful, tender care
Which made our ills so light to bear
Is ours. - A higher place is thine.
Among the blessed thou dost shine.
Thy battle fought, thy laurels won,
Our Saviour says to thee, Well Done!"
The Lancashire Distress
The distress in the cotton manufacturing districts, to relieve which Hastings and St. Leonards, in common with other towns, bestirred themselves, was, like the Hartley Colliery accident, a great national disaster. Bretts St. Leonards Gazette of Oct. 25th, introduced the subject to its readers as follows:- Probably in the history of the world, no war has ever exerted so direct and disastrous an influence on any special branch of industry as the American was has exercised in relation to the cotton districts. Until the breaking out of this was the workers in the said district were fully employed. There may have been, as is asserted, overproduction; but this, if it were really so, was felt to be no hardship by the factory operatives. They were fully employed and were satisfied. The distress is now general all through the so-called cotton districts.
Mr. Farnell, the Poor-law special Commissioner, shows a painful state of privation. He says that in the 24 unions in the cotton manufacturing districts there is an increase of persons receiing parochial relief of 7,845, as compared with the previous week; thus showing that the distress at the present time when winter is setting in, is on the increase. He also shows that whilst this time last year there were but 43,861 recipients of parochial relief, there are now 176,483 - a most alarming increase; and that whilst the expense £2,191 per week, it is now no less than £10,648; so that upwards of £8,000 has to be raised by local rates out of vastly diminished profits. In six consecutive weeks no fewer than 36,668 persons have become paupers. These results are painful in the extreme, but we must add another painful item. Several mills are preparing to shut up altogether. In Ashton within the last few days, two of the largest firms, employing upwards of 3,000 hands are preparing to close their works; and several smaller firms in that and other towns will have to follow the example. In Preston, 13,124 looms have been stopped, the number of spindles being 1,086,602.
There are in once "Proud Preston", now, alas! 12,238 operatives out of employment, the weekly loss in this town alone being £7,000. In Black-
