The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-23 00:00:00

AMERICAN .RELIEF 01 LANCASHIRE
DISTRESS.

The International Relief Fund Committee has
issued the following appeal in behalf of the Lan-
cashire operatives : _ _

" The blow struck at our national existence has fallen
heavily upon the operatives of Europe, and it is announced
to us that in England there is unusual suffering and a year
of scarcity. The agony of Lancashire,' says the London
limes, is every day becoming more acute, and before the
winter is ended the sufferings of the people 'will prove the
greatest national trial that we have had sines the Trish
famine.' When the Irish famine prevailed in 1847 the Ame-
rican people, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, gladly
gave of their abundance ; our Government furnished trans-
portation for the food ; the British Government afforded
facilities for its distribution ; and the Queen, whose virtues
fully illustrate her words, recognised the friendliness of the
act. Again we are called upon in the name of humanity to
relieve men, women, and children, who are compelled, with-
out faults of their own, to face a more fearful enemy than
war. The appeal comes to those to whom God in his pro-
vidence has been most bountiful. Amid all the trials He
has permitted us to meet in the defence of national unity
and constitutional freedom, unsatisfied hunger has had no
place; and, despite the withdrawal of an army of citizens
to protect the liberties of the republic, the labours of those
who remained have been so plentifully blessed that America
is able, from her surplus, to export largely to other coun-
tries. Let us not be unmindful at this moment of the re-
sponsibilities imposed upon us by the munificence of the
Ruler of nations, nor permit our sorrows and burdens to
lead us to forget or to undervalue the peculiar duties that
belong to our position. Our agricultural efforts, extended
over a wide and fertile territory, as yet thinly populated,
have made our land one of the granaries to which the na-
tions of Europe that subsist chiefly by manufactures now
look for food ; and the operatives of Lancashire, temporarily
deprived of American cotton, have more than ever
occasion for American corn. Let that corn bo for-
warded with the generosity that becomes a people who
have undergone the greatest trial that can befall a
nation, end who know the value of sympathy promptly
tendered in the moment of misfortune. Let us show
our gratitude to Frovidence for all its mercies by recog-
nizing the claims of Christian brotherhood, and hasten to
relieve the want whose sharp cry comes to us across the
ocean. The Homestead Act of Congress, whic.a gives to
each settler in our Western Territories, without regard to
his nationality, 160 acres of the public land, offers to every
foreigner a welcome and a home; but a threatening winter
of suffering demands instant relief, and reminds us of the
ancient proverb, "He gives twice who gives quickly."
There is reason to believe, from significant indications, not
alone in New York, but throughout the country, that the
people need no urging to activity in this cause, but rather
wait with impatience the necessary organisation for the con-
venient transmission of their gifts. To this end the under-
signed, who have been appointed by the citizens of New
York to act in concert with similar bodies, urgently recom-
mend the citizens of every city, town, and village through-
out the Union to call public meetings and appoint commit-
tees, to collect and remit moneys and food to committees on
the seaboard ; and they respectfully ask the clergy of all
denominations at once to bring the subject before their con-
gregation, and to take up collections, that all, according to
their ability, may unite in this national and truly Christian
work. They confidently believe that the railroad com-
panies and the owners of vessels on the lakes, whose pros-
perity has been of late largely augmented by the increase
of our agricultural products, will cheerfully furnish gratui-
tous transportation for all donations of food ; and that our
enterprising shipowners will exhibit the like liberality in
furnishing freight room to Europe. They anticipate ready
assistance from the country at large, but they rely espe-
cially upon our food-producing States for prompt and
generous contributions from the grain accumulated on
their hands. The undersigned have already received, as
will appear by the report of their treasurer, large donations
which they hail as the earnest of those to come, and they
repeat with pleasure the announcement that by the libe-
rality of Messrs. N. L. and G. Griswold, a new ship of
1,800 tons burden has been placed at their disposal. They
propose to transmit the provisions they shall receive and
those which they may purchase as rapidly and, econo-
mically as possible, commencing the work without delay,
and making such arrangements with persons of probity in
Great Britain as shall insure their immediate and judicious
distribution."

Mr. Thurlow Weed has contributed 1,000 dols.
and the following letter :

" Washington, Dec. 4, 1862.
"Dear Sir,--I am happy to learn that the enterprise
about which we unversed in New York on Tuesday last
has been auspiciously inaugurated. The organisation
effected in New York will speedily aggregate the contribu-
tions of our citizens, and relief will be soon on its way to
the suffering families of the cotton manufacturing districts
of England. There can be no form of suffering which ap-
peals with such emphasis to intelligent American benevo-
lence. Our unavoidable civil war is the immediate though
blameless occasion of the want of employment and food
which pervades and desolates the manufacturing towns of
England. Their distress, therefore, appeals earnestly to our
hearts. Nor is the fact that our war leaves the labourers of
Lancashire, England, without employment and their fami-
lies without bread their only claim upon us. They are our
friends. While the sympathies of many of the commercial
classes of England are with the insurgent States, while the
cotton houses of Liverpool were furnishing material aid' to
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