The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-11-11 00:00:00

THE LANCASHIRE DISTRESS.

Lord Lindsay and his father have announced • noble
intention on their part to the Mayor of Wigan. They
are, during the next five months, to contribute jointly
£lOO weekly to the Wigan Relief Fund, for the main-
tenance of the distressed in the way of food, and they
hope that an increased scale of allowance will be
adopted. They will pay £l5OO at once, in order to pro-
vide for anything that may be urgently wanted, or to
redeem clothes, pay rent, or purchase clothing, bedding,
Sic., for the distressed. Such an act is its own
nunoifYric•
The Friends of Manchester have resolved to address
the Society of Friends on the subject of the distress in
the North. The committee appointed to frame the
address say:—" Although we cannot, doubt that the
spontaneous sympathy already manifested has been
shared in with warm interest by Friends, and whilst
we believe that they have united with every other class
of the community in extending pratabgl aid to the
sufferers, yet we feel assured that the present crisis,
coming upon so many thousands of families who have
hitherto so nobly borne their privations, is • time when
We, as a religiou body, to whom 'much loath been
given,' are oalled upon to extend (es God bath pros-
per us) the band of sympathy and practical benevo-
lence, seeking in the spirit of Christian love to feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, and minister to the suffering
and distressed!'
At a meeting at Exeter, for the relief of the aigrette
In Lancashire, the Duke of Somerset adverted to the

war in America, and spoke apologetically for both par-
ties, reminding the meeting that even if the two parties
wished to put an end to the war the question of
boundary would be of a serious difficulty in their way.
He hoped. however, that the war would be at an cud
before another winter, mid is the meantime it waster
Englishmen to show their national unity by subscribing
liberally to the relief of the distressed.
" B. G. 0," in the Times, observes that if the northern
want is left to the present sources of supply, it will
assume features too frightful to contemplate :—" In list
exercise of what I believe to be true charity, I entreat
the benevolent of every class to calmly contemplate
the possible exigencies of the coming winter. A
prudent, foreseeing economy in every household from
which God in goodness has kept all knowledge of real
want, at once adopted, will find us prepared to do our
duty to north and south. Never shall we regret any
sacrifice whieh leaves tons the power of helping to the
last of the crisis the poor mill hands, and this with the
power still left to fulfil every charitable duty nearer
home."

A most hearty response has been made to the appeal
for help by the Army and Navy; "both officers and
men have commenced subscription fists," and very
considerable sums are being raised in this way. The
ernployis on various railways, following the example of
these on the London and North-Western and Great
Northern lines, have begun to make periodical col-
lections, and those of the Monmouthshire Railway and
Canal Company have also unanimously voted the
amount granted by the directors of their annual treat to
their suffering countrymen in the North." " Work-
men in various trades" are saving from their earnings
for the same object, "those of Birmingham raising
£l5O per week." There is a "great movement going on"
among the clerks in various Government departments ;
and many a hardworking man is now laying by for the
first time, not for himself or his family, but for those
who in their prosperity are as well off as he is. These
are the widow's mites, that put to shame the most
splendid contributions of the rich. It is not only
among neighbours that the touching spectacle of "the
poor helping the poor" may be witnessed. The same
sympathy is exhibited at this moment in the households
of peasants and artisans in the South of England
towards people of whom they know nothing but that
they are fellow members of the labouring classes, and
that they are in misery. But notwithstanding these
noble instances of generosity, it is painful to confess
that the aggregate fund available for distribution still
falls short of the demands upon it. The weekly loss of
wages in consequence of the famine, is estimated
£136,094, and to supply this fearful deficit, the
Board of Guardians cannot provide a sum exceeding
£lO,OOO. The Central Relief Committee, Manchester,
dispense about £6,200 weekly, and the Mansion House
Cominittee the week before last sent £6,550. All the
grants, therefore, from these three sources, scarcely
amount to m3re than a sixth of what these workpeople
have been in the habit earning, and it is impossible to
suppose that private charity and local funds, already
almost exhausted, contribute more than a fraction to
redress the balance. The subscriptions hitherto pub-
lished approximate to a sum of }300,000. New as a
penny in the kl income tax reeling a million of money,
it is quite evident that there are as yet a vast number
of well-to-do people who have not yet contributed a
single mite to aleviate the distress of their suffering
brethren in the North.