The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-11 00:00:00

INCREASING DISTRESS AT THE EAST

IND.

The scenes of privation and distress so frequent
last winter in the eastern portions of the metro-
polis, especially in the neighbourhood of Millwall
and Poplar, are, it is seriously apprehended, likely
to be repeated on a considerably extended scale
during the next few months. In these districts,
as in others where the population is chiefly of the
poorer class, the recurrence of the winter season is
invariably attended with a largely increased
amount of pauperism, a single day's frost being
sufficient to throw hundreds of labourers out of
employment ; but it is seldom that the various
parochial authorities find themselves called upon
to cope with such an appalling mass of want and
destitution as that which, during the earlier
months of the present year, taxed their
energies and resources to the uttermost.
The dulness of the ship-building trade,
and various other causes, had, it will be
remembered, assisted in depriving many
i hundreds of skilled artisans of their customary
means of employment, and compelling a large pro-
portion of the same to make application for pauper
relief. It was hoped that during the spring and
summer months work would have been found for
the unemployed, thus preparing them in some
measure against the return of a similar period of
distress. Unfortunately, these anticipations have
only been partially realised, hundreds of skilled
workmen having found themselves unable to do
more than procure a precarious livelihood during
the past few months. The scanty resources which
enabled many of them to avoid the humiliation
o; applying for parish relief are rapidly be-
coming exhausted, the books of the small shell
keepers are filled with records of unpaid debts,
and the pawnbrokers' shelves crowded with articles
which those who pledged them have not the means
of redeeming. When the distress was at its highest
last winter, some of the trades' unions and other
working-class organisations iodated liberally in the
relief of their destitute fellow-workers who were
aided also by the various relief committees formed
in different parts of the distressed districts, but
the relief thus afforded was totally inadequate to
the requirements of those receiving it, while, at
the same time, the insufficiency of funds precluded
help being given in a multitude of deserving
cases. No comprehensive system of relief-orgam-
zation appears to have been yet devised in face of
the impending distress, of the probable severity
of which we have certain unmistakeable indications.
Everything appears to be left to isolated individual
efforts or the parochial authorities. The latter,
to do them justice, seem to be fully aware of the
responsibilities they are incurring, and sincerely
desirous that their duties should be efficiently dis-
charged. In Bethnal-green, Hackney, and other
parishes additional relieving officers have bug
appointed, and various other precautions taken.
The parish of Hackney is one of the wealthiest in
East London, one in which the pressure of pau-
perism is last felt ; yet, at a recent meeting of the'
board of guardians, it was stated that, although the
winter season had but just commenced, the increase
of pauperism in the parish had become extremely
serious. Compared even with the exceptional num-
bers of last year, there was the significant in-
usage of 1,000 in the number of those receiving
out-door LAW, while the number of vagrants had
increased in a proportion of three to one—the
number now being 7,10 against 91 only in the cor-
responding week of last year. Last year the
number of men in the stone-yard was 15, this year
it is 36. From this the ominous state of affairs in
the poorer parishes may be but too readily sur-
mised. Apprehens'ons are entertained that if the
provisions of the New Street Act relating to street
hawkers are stringently carried out, yet larger
accessions will be made to the disheartening
amount of pauperism with which East London is
daily threatened. The various parochial boards
unanimouslj concur in expressing their hope that
the police authorities will interpret as leniently as
possible the various clauses of the act. The street-
dealing class labour under the impression that it
the intention of SirßichardMayne to take advantage'
of the act for the purpose of suppressing all street-
dealing. Several meetings have already been held
on the subject, one of which was presided over by
tFe Rector of Whitechapel, and at these it was
pretty plainly intimated that the street dealers
would make a common resistance, should the police
attempt to interfere with their callings. In fact,
the street traders are becoming desperate, for if
they are not to be allowed, under any pretence
whatever, to vend articles in the streets, they have
before them no alternative save the poor-house or
the prison. No wonder, with such a state of
affairs confronting them, the East-end poor-law
guardians are becoming disquieted in mind, and
are speaking uneasily of the future. Nor is the
list of impending dangers yet at an end.
A very large proportion of the unemployed
belong to the lower classes of Irish, and among
these Fenian doctrines are known to be extremely
prevalent. No secret is made of the sympathies
entertained by these people for the cause of Kelly
and Deasy, and there are substantial grounds for
fearing that, under the combined pressure of want,
privation, and political excitement, many of these
men may be tempted by designing persons into the
perpetration of mischievous and alarming excesses.
All this is very serious, and demands instant atten-
tion, both on the part of the public and the govern-
ment. The principal force of the distress will be
felt, so far as present appearances enable us to
judge, in the neighbourhood of Millwall, Poplar,
and other river-side places, where the number of
well-to-do residents i s comparatively limited. White-
chapel, Bethnal-green, and St. George's-in-the-East
will also feel most acutely the unprecedented strain
on their resources. At the same time it should
be mentioned that throughout Eaat London there
exist a large number of small charities and relief
funds, principally for the distribution of meat,
bread, and coals. There can be no question that
a very large proportion of the relief thus afforded
is obtained by persons in anything but destitute
circumstances, people who really have no need for
the relief intended for their poorer neighbours. If
these charities could, during the coming winter, be
ut'liaed into a common fund, administered by a
head committee and branch committees, as in Lan-
cashire during the time of the cotton famine,
much real and efficient relief might be
afforded to the really deserving, and the
pressure on the poor-rates proportionately
decreased. The indiscriminate methods of
relief, so prevalent at the East-end in seasons of
distress, is most mischievous. It tends to per-
petuate a spirit of pauperism, and is continually
abused. In fact, thee wholesale systems of alms-
giving are, generally speaking, the most pernicious
which can possibly be devised. In some cases they
are rendered a means of livelihood for those who
profess to administer them. Much of the assist-
ance sent from the west to the east never reaches
the really poor. All this points to the imperative
necessity, when the proper time arrives, for the
formation of a central relief committee, consisting
of able and experienced men, possessing the con-
fidence of the public, and whose exertions
may be relied upon for carrying out an
efficient, economical, and comprehensive sys-
tem of relief, in conjunction with, and secondary
to, that adopted by the various parochial
authorities. Several attempts have been made to
lessen the number of the unemployed by providing
funds for enabling a portion of them to emigrate
to the colonies ; but the parochial funds are not
sufficiently large to enable emigration to be prac-
tised on an extensive scale. The colonies, too, are
averse to any sudden influx of mere labour, unless
accompanied by a fair proportion of capital, ex-
perience having shown that unless the workman-
emigrant can obtain work speedily on his arrival, he
is likely to settle down into an idle, loafing kind of

life. Altogether the picture thus presented is a
most uninviting one ; still it is better to know the
wont, and be prepared for it, than to be taken
unawares and find ourselves powerless to grapple
with an evil which threatens to occupy no small
share of public attention.