The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-23 00:00:00

EAST LONDON DISTRESS.

To pass through the leading East London
thoroughfares ; to note their generally crowded
appearance, especially after dusk ; their multitude
of profusely furnished and well-lighted shops,
together with the large amount of business cease-
lessly transacted therein ; the costermongers' stalls,
heavi4 loaded with fish, vegetables, and fruits ;
the hundreds of fir-trees purchased by artisans for
manufacture into Christmas-trees, according to the
German fashion—a custom largely on the increase
among the East-end labouring classes ; the well-
dressed crowds flocking to the various theatres and
music. halls ; the brilliantly-illuminated gin-palaces,
filled to overflowing • and all the many charac-
teristic features of last-end street life ; few, save
the initiated, could possibly imagine that Under-
neath this vast exhibition of restless activity and
seeming prosperity there existed a powerful and
ever a Welling under-current of destitution, want,
and misery. It was the same in Manchester dur-
ing the cotton famine. Strangers visited that city
in the anxious expectation of finding its shops
closed, its factories silent, its warehouses empty,
its streets deserted, and its whole appearance that
of a place rendered desolate by the dismal)
ravages of a pestilence ; but instead of
the anticipated gloom and stagnation, a busy
whirl of life and bustling activity everywhere
prevailed. Market-street, Portland-street, and
similar thoroughfares, were apparently as fully
crowded and animated as in the palunest days of
the cotton manufacture. It was not in these that
the thin, pinched features, attenuated forms, and
threadbare clothing of the suffering operatives were
to be seen. One might wander about fur hours
without meeting any indications of the extensive
distress which existed around him, unless indeed
he, perchance, stumbled across a soup kitchen, or
blundered his way into a sewing class. Thus was
it also at Preston, at Ashton-under-Lyne, at Roch-
dale, at Bolton, and a score of other Lancashire
towns ; and so is it at the present moment in the
various East-end parishes, with the exception of
one district, where the mark is too palpable—the
Isle of Dogs, where the distress dismally stares us
in the very face, look which way we will. Else-
where, however—in Whitechapel, Shoreditch,Lime-
house, and other localities, for instance—the pro-
fusely stocked establishments of the butchers,
grocers, and other tradesmen, together with the
bright and darAing appearance of the gigantic gin-
palaces, with their fabulous wealth of wine and
spirits, effectually conceal from the superficial ob-
server the vast amount of bitter privation and
agonised suffering which moodily lurks in the back-
ground, which forms the dark and gloomy interior
of the ghastly sepulchre of which these places con-
stitute ea it were the gay and tempting exterior.
To those who have become familiar with the true
state of affairs at the East-end it is most dis-
heartening to perceive that not the slightest indi-
cation of abatement is yet observable in the now
heavily swollen tide of East London distress, but
that, on the contrary, it is rapidly augmenting in
volume and intensity, and daily threatening to
assume proportions of a most alarming and formid-
able nature. The increasing amount of utter des-
titution becomes hourly more apparent, and also
renders more clear the pressing urgency
which exists for the systematic and econo-
mical utilisation of every available means
of relief. The number of appeals for funds
wherewith to provide Christmas dinners and other
treats for the poor are rapidly multiplying, and
are being liberally responded to by the sympathis-
ing public ; but however much these benevolent
efforts reflect credit on the kind-heartedness which
prompted them, they certainly do not betray much
either Of judgment of discrimination.
What is really wanted is not merely • Christmas
dinner for the deserving poor, but the means of
enabling them to pass as little injured as possible
through the present exceptionally severe period of
distress. That the general public are ready to re-
spond in a most liberal manner to the sorrowing
cry of the unemployed is unmistakeably shown by
the fact that the newly organised East London
Mission and Relief Committee have within the
space of a few days actually received funds to the
amount of nearly 4,000!. in aid of their
exertions. These are professedly based on
the system adopted in Lancashire during the
cotton famine, and include the division of East
London into ten districts, the establishment of
sewing classes, ragged schools, and so on in each
district ; the distribution of clothing, coals, bread,
and soup among the poor ; and the carrying out of
a system of house-to-house visitation. Most of
the-labour is of a perfectly voluntary kind, but it
remains to be seen how far the committee can work
harmoniously with the parochial officials. The
leading defect in the constitution of the new
organisation is the marked absence of names of
leading East-end inhabitants from its committee,
which, with one or two exceptions, consists almost
entirely of noblemen and gentlemen resident at the
West-end. Variou.s minor schemes of relief are
perpetually springing into existence ; but, so far as
any real amelioration of the distress is concerned,
their won king is very unsatisfactory, being partial
in operation and illusory in results.
Nor is the system of parochial assistance alto-
gether what it ought to be. The quality, as well
as the quantity, of the food supplied to the poor in
several of the East-end parishes is greatly com-
plained of. It is undoubtedly far from what it
ought to be. We have tasted some bread supplied
within the last few days by the pariah officials of
St. George's-in-the East to their out-door poor, and
found it exceedingly sour and uneatable, besides
possessing a sickening odour. We do not know
whether the bread thus tested by us was a fair
average sample of that generally supplied by the
parish to its applicants for relief, but, from the
many complaints made by those to whom it is
given, we are naturally led to infer that such was
the case. Now this is a very serious matter. The
general quality of the food consumed by our poorer
classes is unwholesome enough already, and there
is no need to add to its quantity by the addition of
unpalatable and indigestible workhouse bread. The
want of wholes,,me and nutritious food is severely
felt by the poor, who, notwithstanding the exer-
tions of local health-inspectors and policemen, are
still largely supplied with carrion and stale fish.
Meat of the putrid meat is disposed of on Sunday
mornings, when the better class of butchers shops '
are clesed. In the neighbourhoods of White-
chapel and Shoreditch large quantities of unwhole-
some meat are sold, at prices quite low enough to
convince any person of its poisonous quality.
Those who desire to behold the per supplied with
pod and wholesome provisions at a low rate will
be glad to learn that the People's Market in White-
chapel
has proved • genuine success. Every night
it is densely crowded, and on more than one wen-
sion the stock of meat, immense as it was, was
cleared out at an early hour. The cheapness of
the provisions is a matter of secondary importance
compared a oh that of their quality. The weight
is good also. and here the establishment of the
market bias fair to accomplish that which the
legislature has failed to secure, viz. the abolition
of the 31e.rt-weight system. The Whitechapel poor
have learned with wonderful rapidity that at the
new market they are certain of three things—
cheapness, good quality, and full weight ; and
the ineuce is that although the place has only
been ..; en a few days, its capabilities are already
tehted to the uttermost. The average price
of butter is from 10d. to ltd. ; lard, Pd.: cheese,
6d. to Bd. ; raisins, ed. ; tea, 2s. Gil., and
DO on. Immense boilers are now being
erected for the manufacture of soup, which
will be sold here during the middle of the
day. The commercial success of the market ap-
rs to be unquestionable. Were the Lambeth
Baths transformed into • market conducted on •
like principle, the South London tradesmen, who
are so fond of selling inferior articles and giving
short weight, would soon perceive the necessity
for a change of policy.
Although it is not true that the Irish labourers
have been discharged from the various East-end
gas works, it is painfully apparent that the Clerk-en-
well outrage is likely to seriously affect the position
of the different classes of Irish labourers in East
London. They are beginning to be regarded with
suspicion by employers, and with aversion by the
Ilaglish employed. At Messrs. Parnell's, the

Bishopsgate tailoring establishment lately attempted
to be burnt down by means of Greek tire, a large
number—some hundreds we believe—of out-door
workpeople are employed. Many of these are
Irish, and notwithstanding their earnest denuncia-
tions of the fiendish acts of the would-be incen-
diary, it is clear that they have lately become
treated with considerable coolness by their fellow-
workmen. The same thing is observable else-
where ; yet, with the exception of the lower class
of Irish, `the great mass of our Celtic popula-
tion in East London are peaceable and loyal
to a man. They are no more represented by the
horde of Fenian conspirators and assassins than
the working men of London are represented by a
Clerkenwell mob shouting at every " bit of bun-
kum " uttered by a Finlen or some other
popularity-seeking demagogue. No greater mistake
could be perpetrated than to make these men the
victims of an act in which they have had no part,
and which they have again and again denounced in
the strongest possible terms. Whoever may have
joined the Fenian ranks, it is clearly not the great
MU of industrious Irish resident in East London.
Yet so strong is the force of prejudice, that num-
bers of them are being gradually deprived
of employment, and, should the present
mania continue, we may have to thank
the Fenian atrocity at Clerkenwell for being
the means of increasing the amount of East
London pauperism. We have committed many
blunders in our time, but let us not commit this,
the crowning mistake of all. By so doing we shall
only strengthen the hands of the Fenian leaders.
It is the very policy they would have us pursue.
Every Irishman driven by unfounded suspicion
from his employment would, unless he possessed a
nature more than human, be already half-tempted
into the Fenian ranks, and surely we have enough
discretion to restrain us from entering upon a
policy which would not merely aggravate the
burden of East London distress, but would also in-
crease the number of foes with whom we are called
upon to contend in a struggle of which no man can
predict the termination.