The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-01 00:00:00

fitrt4Si•

LONDON, SATURDAY

FEBRUARY 1. 18(8.

TER DISTRESS IN TAR EAST OP LONDON•

The first meeting of the central committee
selected from the various associations whist' tit previously
boon formed
Loudon, for the relief of distress in the mid end of
took place yesterday at the Oannomehrost Hotel.
The gontienion Decimated are MOM& J. D. ilansuda,,M.P.,
Corbett, P. L. J. Raveahill, Currie. Measnktensardos,
Caosnove, Hamad ; Revs. T. J. P.owsell J.
and Colonel Hiti/Cra The chair was taken by Mr.
Con
Coner • Mr. siting as hammy eseretazy.
Xr. RAY read from various societies giving an
adhesion to the central committee ; and
The Ottommow followed with same sonsiesational shear
rations addressed to the various newly appointed members.
Be begged it to be clearly understood that in suggesting
the anialgamation of the various societies and ocumitlems
the POOl4lll/ Rossi had no intention of shirking its peeper
responsibilities ; but were merely anxious to put a restraint
on that indiscriminate slmegiving which bad hitherto pre.
veiled,t. and which had increased the pauperism it was in-
to cheek. Mr. Wimum had written to Mr.
Standish Hely, expressing his belief that if this in
criminate almsgiving were continued in the Isle of Dogs
it would turn the majority of the peop of the district
into regular beggars. What the committee were to hold
in view was that their relief was not to supplement relief
given by the guardians, but was to be applied worm when
the recipients had struggled against pauperism as long as
possible, and had shown themselves anxious to obtain oc-
cupation. The object sought should be to tide over the
present tilted period without enconragiag the imposts.
tics that the same relief would be repeated every year.
Be hoped that there would be the fullest moms:ration be-
Wroth the guardians and the central onntnitlise, and that
therpliblie would be ode to undsrelmed, that, the impor-
tant matter was not so much the amount of money sub-
scribed as the mode in which that money was distributed.
Mr. Corbett, in conclusion, promised the committee every
assistance and advice front his department.
♦ desultory conversation followed respecting the Bur
dett-hall meeting, one gentleman complathing that the
report of that meeting which had appeared in some of the
papers had very much checked the stream of contribu-
tions, and another asserting that that meeting must not be
accepted as having a representative chorister. Mr.
&muds, however, believed that the meeting had been
strictly representative—representative of the trades unions
on the one side and the non-union men on the other. The
same gentleman subsequently stated, on the authority of a
Poplar guardian, that the weekly amount of relief in
money and in kind which a man with a wife and five
children received from the Poplar guardians was as mu
as he could earn in the docks. The result of this was thchat
Poplar men would not work in the docks, and the company
had to obtain their labourers elsewhere. He submitted
that if this state of things were not corrected, the ulti-
mate result must be the pauperisi;of a whole district.
The Rev. Mr. RUM4ELL woe and Mr. Ssurns
seconded, a resolution appointing • eputation to wait on
the Lord Mayor, to ask his lordship for the use of a room in
the Mansion-house for the business of the committee, and
also for his lordship's assistance as chairman.
Thai moi agreed to.
The conversation AS then resumed, Mr. Sari
static g that the shipwrights refused to week in London at
less than seven shillings a day,
. but at the same time
allowed the members of their 11111011 to work in Glasgow
and the north of England, and also in the royal dockyards,
at five shillings. In saying this, however, he IMr. Scottie)
did not mean for a osonseut to say anything to discourage
public beuevaleace. No matter how imprudent might be
the conduct of the men, they were no doubt suffering at
the present moment the most acute distress.
The Rev. Mr. ROWSLIA, pointed out that the ship.
wti.thts, by standing out, entailed compulsory idleness on
all the classes who were ordinarily employed in helping
them, and it was these latter classes, who were wholly
blameless, who were now obliged to appeal to public