The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-02-01 00:00:00

SITUATION OF THE POOR.
Y

A v-ry judicious and humane proceeding has
Wen instituted in most of the large manufacturing
towns of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The
practice of dispensirg relief to common beggars
going from door to door, is passing into disuse,
and the much more effectual and discriminating
method of visiting the distressed at their own houses
is Now hegianiug very generally to prevail. In
Hirddersfield, and the populous villages by which
it is surrounded, a very laborious investigation his
been made into the condition of the poor, and the
frank has been to exhibit a picture of human
misery and distress, which has astonished those who
were before well convinced that the labouring
closes were suffering severe privations. This in-
quiry has been followed by a liberal subscription,
amoun►ing to about one thossand pounda,including
a munificeut contribution from the Right Hum the
Earl of Dartmouth of three hundred pounds. IVith
thus fund it is intended to purchase food and cloth-
ing for the necessitous, under regulations admirably
calculated to afford assistance as efficient as the
sum to be disbursed will allow; but the painful
fact cannot Ire concealed, that even with this noble
subscription, and its judicious appropriation, the
extent of the relief will be iu no degree equal to the
extent of the distress.

In Leeds, visits to the habitations of the poor, in
each division of the town, hive been made, and
with a still more gloomy result. Having ourselves
moister, in this investigation, we can speak to the con•
dit ion of the poor with the greatest certainty and pre-
cision, and we venture to say, without the fear of
contradiction, that such scenes of misery were never
before witnessed in this place in a time of " peace
and plenty." Our population consists of from 36
to 40,000 souls, and of that number 7,000 of them,
■t least, are in a state of the most abject penury and
wretchedness. In numbers of families we find that
they hail eaten up all their effects—their chairs,
tables, beds, and even clothing, hare been surren-
' deted for food or fur rent, into the !sands of the
pawnbrokers, whose funds cannot keep pace with
the demands upon them, and who, owing to the
briskness of their trade, are obliged to :hut up
their shops I The Iseads of families and their hap-
less children, in many caves, have the stamp of
want strongly imprinted upon their countenance,
and we heard of numbers of deaths which had, uo
,ton 't, been produced, or hastened, by the geo-
des% but certain. operation of famine.
Amongst the poor in Leeds and the other menu-
lecturing towns in the north of England, want of
employment is the general cry; and of the 7,000
persons of whom we have spoken, the daily income
of each individual scarcely escerds, according to
the returns made by the visitors, a twenty a day ! or
from 7d. to ltd. per week ! We pot shin matter
plainly, in order to excite our opulent neighbours
to renewed efforts; and as they have already sub-
scribed liberally for the purchase of food, we hope
the work of benevolence will not close till it has
supplied the most necessitous pert of our populs.
Lion with bedding, of which they are equally in waist.
Mossy who had formerly the power to cast their
contributions into the funds of public charity, can
now no longer partake of that enjoyment ; and
some whose names were formerly enrolled in the
lists of subscribers, are now found amongst the
claimants upon the funds. These reverses saf for-
tune form additional motives for liberality ; and it
is, we think, impossible for any •its to enjoy his
own comforts, till he has first satisfied himself that
be has contributed his due share towards the
volition of the miseries of those by whom he is sur-
rounded. We say towards their alleviation—for
nothing but productive employment can remove
the wide-spreading distress with which the country
is at the present moment visited.—(Leeds Mercury.)

SIMP•STEALING.-013 Monday last WU COM.*
milled to Bodsnin gaol, by W. LITTLE. Esq. one
of his MAJF.sTit's Justices of the Peace at Mill.
brook, in the county of Cornwall, Dixie/ FergNson.
fur baring feloniously killed and carried away tix
hind quarters of a black sheep. the property
of the Eirt of MOUNT4tOGICUMBE. early on
the morning of the gid lust. Wt.at readers
this crime more aggravating is, that the prisoner
and his family have, for some tome past, almost
entirely subsisted on the Earl of MOUNT-Eou•
amines bounty.
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