The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-11 00:00:00

RTI VMS

THEUNEMPLOYED OPE

(From the Leeds TiLles, of Saturday, Oct. 9.)
Boar:wog or LEEDS.—A- good deal has been said
of late, both in and out of Parliament, of the dest.to-
tion-and misery existing in .tho country. Mr. Sir arnen
Crawford, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Stewart, and others, have
made representations in the ac use as regards Rochdale,
Manchester, Paisley, and other manufacturing towns
and districts, at which humanity shuddere. We have
not heard much regarding Leeds ; but verily we need
not go beyond the bounds of that uorough in search of
pictures
of extreme distress. Sir Robert Peel and
other members of his government have endeavoured
to explain away the statements of the above-named
gentlemen ; or, when this wets found impossible, they
have aimed at making cut a case of great exaggera-
tion. They, or others for there, may make a sineler
attempt in regard to the statistics of distress with which
we are prepared in regard to this borough ; would that
they could explain away the hunger and the raggedness
of the hungry and the shivering !
Our readers will have noticed the short reports
which have appeared regularly in our paper for sorer.
weeks past, of the proceeding of a number of rrsrina
called the Unemployed Operative Enumeration Cain-
mittee. That Committee has uow completed its statis-
tical labours, and has resolved to lay the ice tilt before
a general meeting of the inhabitants on the. evening of
this day week. To that meeting we reeluest all who
possibly can to repair. The benevolent need no iacitc-
went to this conduct ;
.and there are a sufficiency of
motives to induce the ea'culatinw politician and the
merely curious to attend. At Aldem, our good
member, remarks in a letter he addressed to the
Secretary of the Committee a few days age—" to ascer-
tain the real extent of the distress of the country is the
first step towards providing a remedy for it."
Details will be laid before the meeting ; but mean-
time we may submit a few facts with which we - have
provided ourselves ; awl really it does not surprise us
that such men as Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of
Wellington proles themselves sceptical as to the state-
ments of Messrs. Crawford, Cobden, Gibson, Sze. ; for
we feel persuaded that there are thousands in Leeds
who will feel disposed to set down the following state-
ments as altogether chimerical. Will it be credited
that there are in this borough 747 families, consisting
of 3,960 individuals, subsisting upon ls. 4d. per head
per week ?—that there are 214 families, consisting of
1,294 individuals subsisting on 411 d. per head per week?
—that there arc 1,946 families, consisting of 5,776 in-
dividuals, who have no visible means of subsistence
whatever ?—and will it be believed that the average
subsistence per head per week of 4,752 families, con-
sisting of 19,937 individuals, is nothing more than
!lid.? These are astounding statements, but they
are statements which the Enumeration Committee feet
warranted to put forth, after having made a searching
'investigation—after haer:ng visited the number of fami,
lies above stated.

It is quite possible that the enumerators may baye
been misled in some instances to a certain extent, 'This
we presume, they will not be disposed to deny ; but
after making ali reasonable cl!owances—say that we &-
duct 50 per cent. from the above statements, and what.
a fearfully dark picture st.ll remains !

Surely we have said enough to stir the sympathies of
every heart in which there is one drop of the milk of
human kindness—enough to induce those who know
nothing of all this experimmtally, to ask, Is it so ? and
if they find that this question must be answered in the
affirmative, to put the question, Why is it so? and how
can it be alleviated or removed ? Such questions
ought to'be put immediately. Winter is approach-
ing, amd the damp, comfortless cellar, without fire,
without food, without furniture, without even a bed,
in many instances—is that a place, and are these
circumstances, in which human beings should be
doomed to live ? But the fact is undeniable, that
many in this borough are existing in such circum-
stances—many who would willingly better their circum-
stances could they do so by honest and unceasing la-
bour. This leads us once more to reprobate that igno-
rant, and foolish, and false expression of the Duke of
Wellington's, that in this country every industrious man
may obtain a competency—leads us to reprobate that
policy which, to pleasure, sporting legislators. refuses to
inquire, even, into the extent and the cause of such fear-
ful misery. Let us just ask what is the general ten-
dency of such a state of things? Can it be otherwise,
than towards demoralisation—towards theft, towards
robbery ? The five or six thousand in Leeds who are
represented as having no visible means of livelihood,
what shall we say of them ? In olden times it
was said that " min do not despise a thief if he steal
to satisfy his soul when he is hungry "—has this
rule or law, been abrogated ? Does it consist with
the requirements of modern civilisation—that a man
may first be robbed of his rights as a man—be
forced, in fact, to become a thief or die, and then not
only be despised, but punished for theft? This may
seem a curious question, aud one full of meaning ; but
it is a question which has been practically answered no
later than this day week, in a police court of the sue •
tropolis. A youth is brought before Mr Greenwood,
a magistrate, charged with theft ; the theft is not de-
nied ; the culprit says that he stole from necessity,
after applying in vain for parochial relief; his story is
found to be true ; and the confessed thief is dismissed
without even a reprimand ! Do not matters appear to
have reached a crisis ?

The extent of this misery is such as calls loudly for
al'eviation ; but the fact of its extent almost inclines
a person to shrink from encountering it. Twenty-
thousand individuals existing cn 1 lid. per week
each !—Say that only half this number are in such
circumstances, and still this is a number which it is
altogether impossible for private charity permanently
to react'. Such' a disease demands a radical cure—
palliatives can never reach its root. Speaking of this
matter suggests the idea of another of the Dako of
Weliing!on's famous expressions. He stated in the
House of Lords,
a few evenings ago, that the distress
existing in the count-y could not be the effect of a scar-
city of corn ; for no less a quantity than 1,700,000
quarters had lately
been imported at a low duty ; nod
besides, we had the whole produce of the present har-
vest on hand. Very true ; but what matters it to those
who have nothing to buy with, that there is plenty of corn
in the country? This remark of the Duke's illustrates
a fact, which we should wish to be universally known :as
such—that there is plenty and to spare in England for
all its inhabitants ; that there is plenty in the world,
and to spare for all its inhabitants : hence, the cause of
all this suffering lies not in the nature of things ; of
course, it flows from the institutions of man. " I thank
thee, Jew, for teaching me that word :"—we thank the
Duke for illustrating that the scarcity under which se
many of our fellow-mortais—ner fellow-immortals, are
pining, is not from Heaven, hut that it is from man—
from such men as the Duke of Wellington, who im-
piously stand between a tatnishieg population and the
bounties of Heaven. But tl.is cennot—tbis must not
endure.

4, Vulgar tyrants, hush, beware !
Bring not down the avalanche !"

TBE LATE LORD SYDENHAIIL

The Rimht Hon. Charles Poulett Thomson, Baron
Sydenham and Toronto, and, Governor-General. of al'
her Mltjesty's Provinces on ttl, Continent of Arueri,,n •
whose demise took place on the -vial ult., at hisresid..:tice'
Alwington-house, near Kingston, was the eldest son 01
Mr. J. Poulett Thomson, of Roehampton and Austin
Friars, and brother of
.Mr. George Ponlett &rope,
M.P. for Stroud, who, on his marriage in 1821,
assumed the arms and name of Scropo by sign
manual. Until his accession to offite in 1830, the late
Governor-General was connztted with the well-known
mercantile firm of Thomson and Co.; in the City of
London.

nothing rema;kable, as far as we are acquainted with
his public history, till the year 1826, vi4en he was