The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-19 00:00:00

MARCH 19, lB5l.

SUPPRESSION OF STREET BEGGING.
ST. JAMES'S PARISH.

"TO THE CHAIRMAN AND COMMITTEE OF THE LEICESTER-

SQUIRE SOUP KITCHEN.
" Gentlemen,—ln forwarding my report for the month
of February, I have much satisfaction in drawing your
attention to the annexed table, showing the gradual
diminution of beggars detected asking alms in St.
James's parish, all of whom were strangers, and igno-
rant of the measures adopted for their suppression.
The street guardians continue to carry out your instruc-
tions in an orderly and systematic manner—meeting at
given points, every half-hour, and communicating to
each other the description of vagrants seen; this plan
proves an insurmountable obstacle to the beggar, as he
cannot possibly pursue his calling within the parish for
a longer period than half an hour without detection;
when once seen and cautioned, ho deems it better at
once to quit the parish than run the risk of a conviction
by a repetition of the offence.
" The duties of the street guardians were extended
hn the 27th inst. to the visitation of the principal streets,
and the. public-houses therein, from half-past seven to
ten o'clock in the evening.
" The success attending this evening duty the past
two nights has proved most satisfactory, and will, here-
after, do much towards removing from the streets a set
of desperate prowlers, who, under the cloak of night
meet you at every turn, and, by unceasing importunities
to your remonstrances, as they walk side by side, create
considerable alarm in the timid—especially unprotected
females.

" The licensed victuallers esteem this arrangement as
a great boon to themselves, as well as their bar and par-
lour customers; their attention to business being inces-
santly interrupted from dusk to closing time, in order-
ing out stalwart men beggars asking for money to pay a
night's lodging; and women, boys, and girls, pretend-
ing to vend Lucifer matches, combs, prints, ballads, &c.
" The nuisance complained of in my report for
January last of a large number of juvenile pretending
crossing sweepers infecting the foot pavements for the
purpose of begging, has been removed; the crossing
sweepers now seen in the parish amount to about
twelve men and six boys, all usefully and publicly em-
ployed.
A considerable number of lucifer match sellers, on
being taxed with begging, have withdrawn themselves.
" There can be no doubt that several thousands of
vagrants will be drawn from the country to the metro-
polis this summer; it therefore behoves parochial autho-
rities—now that it is proved mendicity can be easily
suppressed—to adopt stringent measures for checking
the inroads of provincial mendicants, and for putting
down the present existing intolerable nuisance in our
streets.

"BEGGARS DETECTED.
Total English
Total Irish

Gross total
" J. ETTERSIIANK, Supervisor."

" MONTHLY REPORT OF THE LEICESTER-SQUARE SOUP
KITCHEN AND ASYLUM FOR FEBRUARY, 1851.
" I beg respectfully to forward my report of this in-
stitution for the month of February, 1851. The table
of the number of recipients at the kitchen shows an in-
crease of nearly 4,000 persons over that of the month of
January last:—
" TABLE OF NUMBERS RELIEVED.
Relieved in Soup Kitchen.
Mon, 9,317. Women, 1,605. Total, 10,022.
Families and Sick Resident Poor.
Men, 2,466. Women, 3,086. Children, 12,132.
Total Families, 17,684.
Total number relieved, 25,606.
" THE REFUGE.
" 280 women and 488 men have been provided with
beds, supper, and breakfast. From the large numbers
of deserving applicants applying all hours of the day, a
further number of 356 poor men and women have par-
taken of a morning and evening meal of bread and coffee.
" LAVATORIES AND WATER-CLOSETS.
" The free benefits of this establishment have been
bestowed on 8,395 men and 4.516 women and children.
" FREE REGISTRY.
Number of persons registered
Male l9B
Obtained situations 7
Female l2
"RAGGED SCHOOLS.
" Supplied to ragged schools, 146 gallons of soup and
78 quartern loaves, besides frequent entertainments to
the children of a neighbouring ragged school of an
evening meal of tea, coffee, and bread, at the kitchen,
with which they were pleased.
"WANT OF BREAST MILK.
" I am happy to state that all the poor female suf-
ferers applying for relief, with infants in arms, are now
tree from this complaint. By dint of care, and good
nourishing soup and bread, they recovered their milk,
and their babies have been restored to health, and saved
from an untimely grave. They were very grateful for
the protection and relief afforded them in the hour of

"John Brownring, aged 78; James Kearney, 67;
John Long, 10 weeks; and Wiliam Barton, 74—died
during the month in this metropolis from starvation.
" R. CRATE, Superintendent.
" Ham-yard, Great Windmill-street, Feb. 28, 1851."
" The prindiple of filling the famished and desti-
tute individuals who cry for help, with good,
wholesome food, instead of giving coin which
may be ill or disadvantageously spent —is
one which recommends itself strongly to the
notice of the humane; and as the machinery for carry-
ing out the intention of the founders of this kitchen is
now practically perfect, and its economical working
rightly understood, it may safely be assumed that sub-
scriptions destined for the amelioration of the houseless
and suffering pauper cannot be placed more fruitfully
than here; for inasmuch as they are at once applied to
the purchase and administration of nutritious food, so is
there security against the alms of the philanthropist
being viciously and intemperately dissipated. We do no
wrong, therefore, in inviting the attention of those vs ho
are blessed with affluence, and are not indifferent to hu-
man sympathies, to the soup kitchen in question—the
resources of which, long before the winter has passed
away, will no doubt require eleemosynary replenishment.
The recipients in the course of a week amount to seve-
ral hundreds, and no real difficulty is put in the way of
any one who unhappily needs succour. We have before
enforced the claims of this praiseworthy institution, and
eulogised the comprehensiveness of its plan, and the cha-
racter of its management; and we reiterate the appeal
which the statement involves, with all the confidence
suggested by an unmixed faith in its wide and vital
utility."

THE VERY POOR OF THE METROPOLIS,
It is a terrible and heart-rending fact, that numbers n_
persons annually die in the streets of London of hunger
and destitution. However anxious the public may be to
shut their eyes to this appalling reality, it cannot
be qualified, much less refuted. The fact stares
us in the face in all its hideous deformity; fain
would we shun the reflection, but it is impos-
sible. Great privations are endured, especially in the
winter months, in many foreign countries where the
severity of the weather is most acutely felt. In the
north of France, in Belgium, in Holland, and in many
parts of Germany, the sufferings of the humbler classes
are very great;
.but the oases are of extremely rare oc-
currence M which deaths from sheer starvation are re-
ported to the authorities in the principal cities
of those countries. In London, however, the wealth
and material greatness of which exceed that of
any other city in Christendom, deaths from
actual want of food are of daily occurrence.
Strangers to our laws and social regulations may be in-
clined to question this fact. They may say that such
cannot be the case in a country where the Government
raises an enormous sum per annum in the shape of poor-
rates, and where a simultaneous collection of private
bounty, unparalleled in amount to that received for
similar purposes in any other city in the world, is
constantly going on. The truth of these statements
cannot be denied, and hence the marvel that there
should be in the metropolis so many of the very poor.
The solution of the difficulty it, however, instant and in-
telligible. guermous as is our national establishment
for the relief; of the poor, and numerous as are our pri-
vate charities,' they are unable to meet the pressing exi-
gencies ot those who die in the streets from want of food.
There are hospitals in all quarters of the city where
those labouring under every description of human in-
firmity may repair. The existence of present and palpa-
ble disease is the only qualification required for admission
to those magnificent institutions. There are other esta-
blishments supported by the bounty of the affluent, or by
the assistance of the prudent, in the hour of prosperity,
which are the receptacles of those who have " toiled all
day, and nothing spun." and where they may pass the
declining years of their lives. But there is no adequate
asylum for the wretched wayfarer, whose hard lot it is
to wander hungry through the great thoroughfares
of the town, and whose necessity ought to be sufficient
to entitle him to immediate relief. The class of per-
sons who perish in our streets from the want of the
commonest necessaries of life, are not what are com-
monly called vagrants. Far from it. The vagrant,
according to the accepted term, is the knave who
haunts the streets, ever ready to plunder or to beg,
as the opportunity arises. The assiduity with which he
follows his profession secures him an ample return from
the credulity of his victims; but the very poor of the
metropolis are those whose wants are not paraded to
view, who live in attics and cellars, and whose necessi-
ties for the most part are caused by want of employ-
ment. Immense numbers of the resident deserving poor
of this class are at this season suffering the greatest
privations. Another class, whose necessities are even
more pressing, consists of those who are sojourners
in the metropolis, and who flock from the provinces in
the hope of obtaining employment. In many cases
strong men, or men who ware strong when they com-
menced their journey, have trudged on foot perhaps 50
or 100 miles, in the expectation of finding some descrip-
tion of employment on their arrival. Their hopes, how-
ever, are frustrated; no employment awaits them; and
as their slender resources are consumed in a few days,
they are forced to become outcasts in the streets, with no
alternative except starvation or crime. They have no
claim upon the Metropolitan Union-heuse, except as casual
poor. The utmost relief they can hope for is a morsel
of bread and a roof to cover them for the night, and for
one night only. Many of those workmen never return
to their native place. To use an expression 2 familiar to
political economists, they are " consumed in the me-
tropolis—that is, some find employment, but many, alas,
the greater portion, are struck down. by disease and,
famine, and ultimately become the subject
f" or roners
inquests, when the stereotyped verdict of die c. o d
from
want and destitution" is returned.
Within the last few days the public journals have re-
corded no less than three deaths resulting from want of
actual food. One of these wretched beings died on the
pavement in the open street, desolate and alone, whilst
thousands of his fellow-creatures were swarming around
him! Here is the official record;—" John Browning,