The Express.
London, England, 1862-10-28 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGIL

THIN DAT Morning. sh. 5.h.....Ariarh004 5d 304
Tu-rothow—Morning, 6h. Old. —Afternoon. 64. 304

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28.

IT is understood that the Bishops are consulting
about a combined movement by which the whole
country will be appealed to at once on behalf of
the sufferers in Lancashire. All the churches in
England and Wales, it is said, are to be opened on
the same day for service and collections in aid of
the Lancashire operatives on the approach of
winter. This intention on the part of the clergy
offers the right opportunity for a few words of
plain truth about the way in which the great ca-
lamity is met, and ought to be met, by the country
at large. We shall say what we know, and what
many or most people think who can be said to
think on the subject ; and no one whose honest
interest is in the relief of the sufferers will take
amiss what we say.

As far as we know, nobody is satisfied with what
is done. There are multitudes who skim the sub-
scription lists with admiration, other multitudes
who only look at the sum totals, and others still
who suppose that Parliament did what was proper
before it separated ; but we do not call this being
satisfied with what is done for Lancashire. There
can be no satisfaction short of knowing that the
people there are so fed, clothed, and warmed, as
to keep up their health ; and so treated as to keep
up their spirits. This has not been done yet,
during the finest weeks of a sunny autumn ; and
now that the dreary equinoctial weather has brought
winter into full view, we are all asking what state
Lancashire will be in by Christmas if we do not
extend and improve our dealing with the distress.
Here is a national calamity, more like the
famines and plagues of the middle ages than any
modern experience of distress. Here is a popu-
lation—a special class of four millions of people—
actually destitute, whom it is the business (and
ought to be the pleasure) of the nation to early
on to better times in good health and heart. Here
is a nation as generous as any in the world, and
accustomed to give very largely to starving people
in Ireland, in India, and to French, and Dutch,
and Swiss sufferers from flood or fire. Here is a
country full of wealth, rich enough to meet any
temporary pressure on its resources. Here are
hundreds of good men and women ready and
willing to help in relieving the sufferers,
and, no doubt, thousands "waiting to help," as
one of them signed himself in a letter to us last
Saturday. Here are all the means. Why is the
thing not done ? The general misgiving is that
nothing adequate to the need will be done unless
some of the best organizing heads in the country
will go to work to organize these means into a
comprehensive and all-pervading system of collec-
tion and administration.

Before they prepare their sermons for the
Relief services, let the clergy consider what our
churches do from year to year. No difficulty is
found in raising 100,0001. for missions, or other
objects of pious charity. Let them consider how
munificent have been the subscriptions for various
cases of suffering between the year of the potato
rot and the present. All our experience goes to
show that if all Lancashire is not carried well
through the winter, it will be the fault of those of
us who fail to obtain and administer means which
are ready to our hands.

The conditions of the cue are plain enough.
The numbers of the destitute are published very
frequently, and ample notice is given of the
increase to be expected. Well, each of that great
number must receive the money's worth of two
shillings a week at the least while the distress lasts.
To meet this so much per week must be contri-
buted by the country at large ; for nobody now
supposes the Lancashire ratepayers can do it. The
country is able and willing : it only wants to know
how to do it.

If it could not be done otherwise, the thing
must be done through Parliament ; but
nobody says this ; nobody can possibly
think it, in the face of the generous
gifts which are hourly offered by high and
low, old and young, rich and poor. But, if the
relief is to be voluntary, it must be as systemati-
cally secured and administered as if by enactment.
Where are the born-legislators, the organizers who
might carry our Lancashire sufferers through as
Dr. ALEXANDER and Miss NICHTINOALL carried the
sick and wounded through the last winter in the
Crimea! Let us find them ; and let them show
us methods of accomplishing public works, methods
of feeding, clothing, warming, and employing the
greatest number in the most effectual way. Let
ns have a channel for emigration provided, if it
seems good ; let us have some public works that
are actually needed ; let us be told whether the
mills cannot or ought not to be set to work as the
cotton comes in ; let us be satisfied that the ad-
ministration of food is the best known for sustain-
ing health and cheerfulness, which is always the
beat economy.
This organization would naturally follow upon
a properly organized levy of the means. At pre-
sent the state of things is this. Thousands of
kindhearted people send money to some collector
or other; and thousands more have no clear idea
where and how to send. Wherever there happens
to be an energetic and practical person to move