The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-17 00:00:00

THE DISTRESS IN THE METROPOLIS.

it-derilay morning from an early hour the
serious !arts of the inetnipolis, eel faith:Wally at the
East-end, presented • sail appearance, iu conscoueuee of
the large numbers of destitute lelouriug nien who were
standing outside the workhouse doors and panulin;, the chief
thoroughfares seeking for alms and beggiug of the foot
per engem for assistance for their hungry families, who
hail been thrown into a state of actual want thnsigh the
continued severity of the weather. At the front entrance of
the Whitechapel Union a large crowd of IMO, women, and
children collected, and the relieving officeni and their cods-
taints were engaged during a great portion of the day in das-
, trihuting bread, meat, and money. The workhouse of St.
Geor;e's-iti-tlie-Eut, in Charles-street., Old Gravel-lane,
WWI besieged with applicants fur temponiry aid, and some
buudreds of quartern leave* were distributed. At the
workhouse of Mile-end Old Town, Bancroft-road,
Stepucy. there were upwards of five hundred appli-
cants for relief, and temporary assistance was ren-
dered to them by the relieving officer sod his
assistant. The increase of pauperisni in the parish of St.
Matthew, Bethnal-green, has been euortinais. The board of
guardiaus of St. Leonard's, Shoreilitch, bad n special meet-
Kg in the committee-room at the workhouse,
iogsland-rnud, to grant temporary relief to the starving
1100 f, and to-day some huncheilsofilestitute persons of both
sexes will be assisted with bread, meat, and small !HIM of
irony, from the funds of the parish.
Math.) Leaden and St. Katharine Docks and the East
and West India Docks the amount of unemployed labour
is very great. Arrangements for the wants of the men have
been temporarily made.
The number of applications at the Mansion-tow pence-
court fur relief continues very peat, and the benevolence of
the public still enables Lis lonlship to afford relief to a great
number. Yeatenlay no fewer than 30111 persons applied for
assi.tatav ; and after strict inquiries had been made, all
who were found deserving, to the number of 180, reeeivel
an amount sufficient for the relief of their preeert wants.
At Guildhall police-court Alderman Mechi was
for several hours ailministering the relief placed at hr
dis-
purl to about 70 poor and diatiesaed families ; and as ever)
came had been previously visited and fully inquired into by
I the police, who issued certificates of the genuineness of the
results stated, there was not even the possibility of imposi-
tion. The inopectors of police claimed the desert-Big appli.
cants according to the various degrees of distress in which
' they were found, au that the magistrate was able to distri-
buts the funds in sums more appropriate to the wants of
the poor, and the coal and soup tacker where they would
be meet serviceable. The eyatem has been found to work
' exceediagl . well, but, iu order to prevent disappointment
to nuiny of the poor Irish in the neighbourhoods of Gray's-
, inn-lane, Sawn-hill, Whitechapel, and Southwark, it
should be known that hundreds of recommendations, meetly
from Roman Catholic priests, in favour of minas in those
localities, have bees destroyed, because they did not reside
in the City. Indeed, it was found necessary to confine the
distribution to the City poor belonging to this district, as in
vary many instanter the parties relieved at this court
peo-
oeeled immediately after and endeavoured to get relief at
the Mansion-house, and those relieved at the Mansion-house
repeated their applications at this court. A number
of additional donations have been received at this court;
in addition to which Mr. Alderman Mechi stated that he
racer pleasure in mentioning that Mr. Crawford, of the
kmdTarn, King-street, and Gresham-street, had very
entseribed 11. to the poor-box, and that be
had further placed at the magistrate's disposal tickets
far one hundred basins of soup and one hundred
loaves of bread, and had also tendered the gratuitous use
of his kitchen, cooking apparatus and serrate, to
padre any quantity of soup which benevolent pares
might wish made for distribution among the earwig
of the district. Mr. Crawford explained that many prams
would give soup away in preference to money, if they had
I the means of getting good soup at as lowa price as poseible;
1 and he wished such persons to understand that he would
make any quantity to order for the mere price of the mate-
' vials of which the soup actually consisted. Alderman
Mechti said, be was happy to say that other benevolent gen-
tlemen had came forward with similar afar Mr. H.
Haynes, time auctioneer, of Moorgreestrer, and Mr. Thus.
Beard, solicitor, of Basinghall-street, had kindly given
tickets for 400 mart, of soup and 400 loaves of bread, to be
distributed at this office, and the relief supplied at Mr.
ftwainaton's, at the corner of the Old Jewry.
At the Clerkenwell police-court the number of applicants
for temporary relief—notwithstanding that may have
altusdy received its benefita—appears to be greatly oulthe M-
ersin, and Mr. D'Eyncourt has for some days part been
I eng
aged in looking over the recommendations that the c:
hare-brought. In consequence of this increase the of
' attached to the court have not been found sufficient to nuke
the necessary inquiries, and Mr. Superintendent Garnet, of
the G division, was applied to for the assistance of some of
the officers under his command. The request was acceded
I to, and the inquiries being at once made, several persons
were to-day relieved with meat, bread, dour, blankets, coals,
and in some instances money and flannel. No really de-
serving use has been sent airy, and no difference is made
or gaietiea asked as to what reed or country the applicants
belonged. Mr. IYEyncourt is the course of the day re-
ceived several donations.
At the Thames Police Court, the magistrates have
adopted different systems of administering relief to the un-
employed and destitute population of the district. Both,
however, have effected much good. Mr. Hells commenced
by relieving poor women, whose poverty and misery was
verified by the clergy of all sects in the district. and others
of repute known to him, sad in this way pee temporary
relief to about 700 women, principally widows, and • few
men. Mr. Yardley commenced by relieving a few unem-
ployed labourers on Thursday evening last, and their num-
bers asereased daily until Tuesday, when 1,100 out of 1,500
assembled were raided, about 800 with is. each,
100 with Bd. each, and another hundred with 2s.
or 2s. Gd. each. It was announced on Tuesday that
women only would be relieved on the following day, and
that letters of verification from the clergy or from ladies
and gentlenien known to the magistrate only would be at-
teoded to. At noon a vast Assemblage of pour women,
thinly clad, many suffering from cold and hunger, anew-
bled in the street. They continued to increase, until they
amounted to at least 2,000, and as they completely blocked
up Arbour-street East, directions were given to admit them
into the station house yard, the great pre of which were
thrown open for that purpose. About 1,000 letters were
handed to Mr. Selfe in the course of the day by the half-
' famished women. A selection was absolutely neer-
sary, and the letters from tradesmen ad land-
lords not known to the magistrate, and not • few
of whom were suspected of recommending applicants
for the pupae° of obtaining payment of debts and
arrears of rent, were thrown aside, and the magistrate pro-
ceeded to relieve the women recommended to him, and did
not terminate him humane labours until 11 o'clock. About
300 women, a groat majority of whom had husbands sad
children at home wanting breed, received front Is. to de.
each. Great numbers, whose poverty, apparently as great,
was not verified, did not obtain anything. Mr. Pyer, the
chief clerk, was solely uccupied from 11 o'clock in the
morning in opening the letters containing cheque*, bank
notes, money orders, and postage stamps, and recording the
same in • book.

Mr. Obseler, a gentleman residing in Hammersmith, and
.ho ahrays devotes considerable time to ameliorate the
condition of the poorer charres,'scoompaoied by the Rev.
Charles Butcher, curate of RC Paul's, Hammersmith, and
Mr. Roberta, the vestry-clerk, attended before Mr. Ingham,
at the Hammersmith police-court, to solicit a donation
• - behalf -^

hem the poor-box on of the parochial soap-kitchen.
Mr. Meter said the soup-kitchen had been formed by
some ef the inhabitants to relieve the destitute pour, who
were thrown into distress and want by the present severe
weather. During the last fortnight they had given away
1.200 gallons of soup, and their daily consumption was
MO ;snook A fortnight ago they found 187 families in •
destitute state, and they had relieved them with soup,
beside* providing them with bread and fuel. There were
upwards of 200 men at work in the stone-
yard in the union workhouse, all of whom had
partaken of the soup to nourish them while exposed to the
inclement state of the weather. They had exhausted their
funds, having spent upwards of ROI. in the fortnight. They
had been promised 90f. if they could prevail upon his worship
to give a like sum, and they would endeavour to collect
more from private subscriptions. He could assure his wor-
ship that every case was well investigated, and from the
manner in which the soup was given away it was impossible
for the funda to be abused. He also stated that it was
expected that the number in the stone-yard would be in-
creamil, and if the society were unable to raise the aeolemary
leo& they would not be in a position to continue the relief
from the soup-kitchen. Mr. Ingham observed that district
societies had a better opportunity of knowing the parties
who relight to be relieved than the magatrates, but at the
same tune he thought soup-kitchens were open to
abuse, and he wished to know what security was
takes topevent imposition. Mr. Chester said they had
a baod effoetiy ladies who went round and investigated every
ear, swept these who were toned destitute in the streets.
No soup was given away without a ticket, and those who
were at the stemisylvd attended personally in batches of
50; so they were certain of their receiving the soup.
Mr. high= said that, from the present state of the
funds, and the probable demands made in the curren
year, he should not be j
ustified in offering • larger sum than
10f. lf thesevere weather continued another fortnight there
was-nothing to prevent Mr. Chester applying again.

Tee Durranss IN NorrtnonAm.—ln consequence
of the depressed state of the staple trades, both hosiery and
lace, the operatives engaged in each manufacture are suffer-
ing to a fearful extent. There are at the present time more
than 1,000 inmates in the union, and 6,309 recipients of
out-dear relief. Numbers of the workpeople are walking the
streets, and the inclemency of the weather adds considerably
to the inteusity of their sufferings, Yore soup kitchens
are being emoblished, and further methods adopted to
soften the rigour of the present calamitous state of things.

GLASGOW AND GARIBALDI.

Thy following letter app•ars in the Glasgow
Mould

"Sir,—! returned yesterday from Italy, where I trust
the performance of au honourable duty imposed on me by
our committee Ise been useful to many brave men there,
and Lot discreditable to the character of our native country.
First, I should thank the ladies of Scotland for the hand-
some sum of INX, which they transmitted through me to
General Garibaldi, more especially as it came to him at a
time when every chilling was worth a pound ; and coming
as it did to me through the hands of Robert Henderson,
Esq., Sardiniau Coosa!, whose careful attention to ray help
I might require in a strange country, did me more good
than all that was done fur me in my unexpected mission.
" I am preparing my report to the committee, who will
hest judge bow much should be published at this time ; but
f owe it to the general public of Scotlaud to satisfy in some
degree the anxiety which I am glad to witness exists among
our people regarding the approaching crisis in Venetia and
Hu . Altos simply thanking the pres:., therefore, for
therirY
play I have received while performing an arduous
but honourable duty, it may be right that I should request
publicity to the following letter of General Garibaldi, Which
embraces all claws of his friends :