The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-31 00:00:00

being reserved to the magistrate to restrict their
hours still further. After a certain number of con-
victions forfeiture was to ensue, the penalties to
range from £2O and downwards. When it was in
contemplation to devote a building in course of con-
stru.tion. to the purposes of selling liquor notice of
such intention wag to be given to the householders of
the locality. When three-fourths of the ratepayers
agreed that c-rtain were rot nec ssa! y
that resolution wits to be decisive, and when me-
morials were drawn up penalties were to be enforced
in the case of the forgery of signatures.
Rev. Dr. GARRETT opposed that part of the Bill
relating to the Sunday question. Iu Liverpool
alone 41,149 were in favour of the entire closing of
publichouses on Sundays, and out of 1,300 publi-
Cans 700 had expressed their approval of the same
project. He believed the Conference should have no
sympathy with the Bill as far as it concerned the
Sunday closing movement.

The afternoon meeting then adjourned.
At the evening sitting Mr. B. Baker, J.P., of
Glocestershire, took the chair.
Rev. H. SOLLY read a memorial which has been
adopted by.the members of Working Men's Clubs
and Institutes for presentation to the Home Secre-
tary, in which it was stated that there were 100,000
publichouses, and 45,000 beer souses throughout
the country; that in Staffordshire there were 2,301
public and 2,769 beer houses, or one to every 28
families ; and in Lancashire there were 15,388 of
these places, or 1 to every 31 families.
Mr. STEINTHAL rose to address the meeting on
the Liverpool Bill, and said that, though he agreed
with the general aims of the measure, he could not
approve some of its details. For instance, im-
munity from increase of licence and higher assess-
ment was to be granted to the present holders of
public houses, which he believed to be injudicious.
He also thought that public houses should not be
opened on Sunday, when the working men had their
wages at their disposal, and temptations to indul-
gence were strongest. But other provisions of the
bill were admirable : the fact that bonds were re-
quired from the landlords and also their sureties for
good behaviour, and the tax and assessment on
public houses. With regard to penalties, he con-
sidered it better to fix a minimum instead of a maxi-
mum. With respect to the number that should
exercise the veto, he thought three-fourths too large.
He concluded by moving a resolution approving the
general scope of the bill.
Dr. Martin, of Warrington, and Mr. Jowett, of
Leeds, supported the resolution, which was opposed
by Mr. Smith, a working man, who said the effect
of the bill, if carried, would be to set class against
class, and by Dr. Garrett, who said the measure
was loose in principle, and that it would tend to
increase the liquor trade. He moved an amend-
ment against that part of the proposed measure
which related to the opening of public houses
on. Sundays.
The amendment was seconded by Mr. Gale, and
the discussion was continued by Mr. T. Webster,
Q.C., and Mr. S. Pope, barrister-at-law; but it
was ultimately withdrawn.
Mr. C. SIMMONDS, a working man, moved a
second amendment, to the effect that the licensing
pOwer should be invested in the ratepayers sitting
as a petty jury; but this was ruled out of order,
and consequently not pressed.
The debate on the substantive resolution was
then continued, during which it was especially
dwelt upon that the regulation in the bill that beer-
houses should get licences for dancing on the pre-
mises was restrictive, for hitherto in the provinces
no such licenses were required, contrary to the prac-
tice prevailing in London.
Mr. LAWRENCE, wilco/had charge of the bill, and
Mr>',VriEINTHAL having renttedillle resolution was
put and carried. A vot. of tiLinks to the chairman
terminated the proceedings, after which the con-
ference adjourned. _ _

We have been requested to state that there will
be a meeting of the executive committee on Satur-
day week, and that information regarding the ob-
jects of the Conference can be obtained from Mr.
C. Ribton Turner, 1, Alma-square, N.W., to whom
all communications are to be addressed.

The Distress in the East of London.

MANSION-HOUSE RELIEF FUND.

The fund now being raised by the committee, of
which the Lord Mayor is chairman, for the relief of
the prevailing distress, especially in the east of Lon-
don, amounted last evening to nearly £B,OOO, and
they had made grants in all amounting to £4,505
since Tuesday week to be distributed by local com-
mittees among the destitute people. At two o'clock
the general committee held a meeting at the Man-
sion-house. There were present :—The Lord Mayer,
Mr. John Abel Smith, M.P., Mr. Alderman Finnis,
Mr. Sheriff Lycett, Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr. Wm.
Leaf, Mr. Christopher Gabriel, Mr. W. J. Max-
well, Mr. Philip Cazenove, Mr. Robert Wigrarn,
the Rev. T. J. Rowsell, the Rev. F. G. Blomfield,
the Rev. Wm. Rogers, Mr. Frederick Thompson,
Mr. Henry Goschen, Mr. Alfred Rothschild, Mr.
Gilliat, Mr. John Holms, and Mr. Gibbs.
Tlie committee started yesterday with a clear
available balance of about £4,420. There were
many deputations from the distressed districts in
waiting. A local committee from the Tower-hill
district, which is very large and wretchedly poor,
inhabited mostly by dock labourers out of work,
attended the' meeting and brought under its notice
the deplorable condition of the labouring classes
there. Of a population of 23,000, at least 16,000
are labouring people ordinarily in the receipt of daily
wages, and hundreds are represented as standing
idle about the entrances to the docks from day to
day waiting for employment. The Local Relief
Committee are spending about £lOO a day in sus-
taining the starving prople. A case was mentioned,
among others, where the relief visitor found a man
and his daughter in almost the last stage of destitu-
tion in a wretched apartment. They had parted
with almost every available thing, except in what
they stood. The visitor ordered some instant re-
lief, and the girl went out-to obtain it ; but before
she could return with it her father had died. In
St. Mary's, Newington, there is a population. of I
43,000—extending on the north from Dover-road,
southward, and on the south by Kennington-park
—fully three-fourths of whom aro,ofktilnie labeoopulrei_ng
classes. About a third of the s%or g p
mostly employed in the building tradielsraz dfifraneltsorhiaeds
—.are out of work. Many of the
0
discharged great numbersoftphreoirdulicaenddgs,reaantdtbelate severity of the weather had
des-
titution and consequent illness. St. Mary's, IVhite-
chapel, has a population of about 24,000, including
St. Jude's as well, and comprising all Whitechapel
north of Alie-street. Four-fifths of them are of the
labouring class, and a large propertion of them arc
in want. They are mechanics,dock labourers, coster-
mongers, sempstresses, tailoresses, &c. The distress
is ascribed to want of employment, especially in the
docks, a general paralysatiun of trade, the frost,
exhaustion of means, and emphatically improvidence.
The general character of the people is industrious,
though poor. The Whitechapel Relief Society has
been in active operation for about a month, distri-
buting bread, coals, and meat, and about 150 gallons
of soup daily.

The Rev. T. J. ROWSELL, a member both of the
Mansion-house Committee and that of the Bishop of
London, took occasion to say, in reference to the
destitution in Whitechapel, that on Wednesday, ac-
companied by the clergyman of the district and a
city missionary, he visited the district of St. Paul's
there, and that he never saw anything like the pre-
vailing wretchedness. The people were literally starv-
ing, and he could give names and details which he
was sure would harrow the feelings of the commit-
tee. In places into which he went he saw children
stark naked. Again; he said, the whole waterside
trade was paralysed, especially in Rotherhithe and