percent, in others reaching sixty percent less; that even handicraftsmen, smiths, bricklayers, and others, who usually have full employment in the most depressed periods, now suffered greatly from want of work and reduction of wages; and that, even now, in January, 1843 , wages are still steadily falling. And these are the reports of manufacturers!
The starving workmen, whose mills were idle, whose employers could give them no work, stood in the streets in all directions, begged singly or in crowds, besieged the sidewalks in armies, and appealed to the passersby for help; they begged, not cringing like ordinary beggars, but threatening by their numbers, their gestures, and their words.
Such was the state of things in all the industrial districts, from Leicester to Leeds, and from Manchester to Birmingham.
Here and there disturbances arose, as in the Staffordshire potteries, in July. The most frightful excitement prevailed among the workers until the general insurrection broke out throughout the manufacturing districts in August.
When I came to Manchester in November, 1842 , there were crowds of unemployed workingmen at every street corner, and many mills were still standing idle.
In the following months these unwilling corner loafers gradually vanished, and the factories came into activity once more.
To what extent want and suffering prevail among these unemployed during such a crisis, I need not describe. The poor-rates are insufficient, vastly insufficient; the philanthropy of the rich is a raindrop in the ocean, lost in the moment of falling, beggary can support but few among the crowds.