The Express.
London, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

HIGH WAYLAY LONDON =IDOL

Ms DST YaeflM.
ob. 40as.
To-moutow—Morst m 1 bOos.

LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30.

CHRISTMAS is come and gone—if not with the
bracing frosts and the thickly lying snow which
send men shivering to their own bright hearths,
and almost force them to remember those that
glow with no such kindly blaze, yet with • louder
even than its common call upon our social sym-
pathies. Autumn has passed quietly into winter,
almost without a warning ; the dark, damp days
have gradually become darker and damper ; the
leaves have slowly fluttered to the ground ; the
mist and the rain have week by week grown more
frequent and more chill. But we dare not infer
from this mild Christmas that for once we have
escaped the clutch of winter: the heavy snows of
January, the long dry frosts of February and March,
and the cutting east winds of what ought to be spring,
yet lie in wait to undeceive us. And while winter
always brings with it a host of new claims to the
benevolence of the rich, the prospect before us
now is dreary indeed. The industry of our richest
and most prosperous province has been stricken
with sudden paralysis ; nearly half a million of
workers—who held themselves at a height of in-
dependent comfort far above the common level of
their class—are now receiving daily bread at the
hand of charity. The tale has been told so often,
that it needs not now to tell it again. With all
its external aspects we are familiar : the smoke•
less chimney, the idle machinery ; the house
growing bare of furniture, the beds without ne-
cessary covering ; threadbare clothes and shoeless
feet, hopeless mothers and hungry little ones—have
all made in their turn • not wholly ineffectual
appeal to our hearts. The evil still remains in
undiminished proportion : the best news which
statisticians have to give us is, that now things have
probably come to the worst, and may therefore be
reasonably expected to begin to mend ; while every
week the local springs of relief are giving unmis-
takeable signs of failure. But this is far from
being the whole of the task which lies before us.
Glasgow has felt the blow under which Man-
chester is prostrate ; the stockingers of Hinck-
ley have sunk to a lower than their common
depth of destitution ; the ribbon weavers of
Coventry are uttering their old, sad cry of dis-
tress ; a wail of misery comes from the wet oat-
fields and storm-beaten hills of Skye. In every
large city throughout the land, the poor, who are
always with us, make their wonted appeal : the
squalid courts of Spitalfielda, the filthy closes of
the Cowgate, need, now as ever, all that Christian
charity and patience can do, to purify and to cheer
them. 1.7p0n what need shall the liberal heart
first spend itself—to what labour the ready hand
first apply its strength?
To Lancashire, at least, we may look with some
just complacency—if, indeed, a just complacency in
matters of benevolence be possible—as we abandon
ourselves to the festive thoughtlessness which, by
common consent, is held to befit the season.
Throughout the distressed district the rate of re-
lief has been gradually raised from week to week,
until it has reached, in most towns, the highest
level on which it can be maintained without inter-
ference with the interests of returning work.
Abundant stores of clothing and bedding have
been accumulated, and are being distributed with
a quickness and regularity which will soon leave
but few wants unsupplied. The sentiment of
Christmas has kindly and powerfully moved in the
hearts of the Mansion-house Committee, and
a special grant of eightpence a head
enabled every distressed family to banish
on Thursday, at least for a few hours,
the necessity of rigid thrift. With all
this, the Manchester Central Committee report a
balance in the bank of some 270,0001., and sub-
scriptions are still pouring in with undiminished
rapidity. While, at the same time, the LORD
MAYOR is receiving and distributing funds with a
liberal hand, the whole expenditure of the Relief
Committees for the week ending December 20th,
was about 25,0001. On the fair supposition,
therefore, that this week may be taken as the ave-
rage of the next two months, the Manchester
Committee have already sufficient funds in hand
to keep up the present rate of expenditure for ,
ten weeks more, or until the middle of March. I
But, if to this we add the uncertain amount of I
the London balance, and the suns arising
from local subscriptions or otherwise, already in
the bands of the various Relief Committees, it will
be seen that the wants of the first quarter of 18631
are already provided for.
These considerations, be it observed, furnish no
excuse for staying our hands. To those who have
at all studied the conditions of a successful manu-
facturing industry, it must be clear that the but
we can hope for Lancashire, for many months to
come, is half work. Half work means half wages
for the employed, and for the employer • certain
steady outflow of capital—circumstances which
will necessarily combine to depress the cotton
district below the point of self-depsndenos.
But the present action of the Relief Com-
mittees, and the balances held by their bankers,
may very justifiably remind no of the other claims
upon our kindness which Christmas brings with it
—especially in so far as they are susceptible of a
temporary satisfaction. It has been urged, not
always generously, upon Lancashire men, that upon

them lay the first responsibility of sucoouring
Lancashire distress. Let not the inhabiter& of
happier regions now forget to take the lesson to
themselves. We shall effect only a partial good—
if not indeed in some respects a real evil—if the
half-worn clothing which is awn away to cover
nakedness in the North leaves nakedness at home
shivering in the frost. In depreciation of persona
self-denial we have not a word to say ; the gift
most emphatically twice blessed is that which
costa a genuine sacrifice. But our first duty is to
see that no excitement of charity leads usdito neg-
lect any obscure bat customary office of benevo-
lenoe. Let no poor pensioner who has long
looked forward to the remains of our Christmas
hospitality, to the reversion of our cast-off cloth-
ing, to the annual gift which alone places within
his resch the possibility of seasonable comfort,
turn disappointed from our door. Let no well-
considered and long-tried agency of beneficence
be compelled this winter to narrow its operations
for want of the funds which have streamed
northwards. There is neither moral nor econo-
mical gain in neglecting one duty in favour of
another, simply because in the latter case the
claim of conscience is backed by all the argu-
ments of sympathy. In an old, and yet a hard
saying, is contained a deep mystery of dutiful-
ness :—" These ought ye to have done, and not to
" leave the other undone."