The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-23 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three o'clock.

In the House of Commons, last night, Mr. HUME, in
the absence of Mr. WALLACE, presented a petition,
signed by some hundreds of the inhabitants of the be:

rough of Paisley, complaining.of the change made in the
mode of relieving the starving poor by the Government
Commissioner. As we consider it of great importance
that general attention should be paid to the cries of the
poor in a season of general distress, we shall proceed to
make our readers acquainted with, the grievances for
which relief is sought from the House of Commons.
The petitioners state that, for ten months past, thousands
of the most industrious inhabitants of that town, after
selling and pawning every article of wearing apparel that
they could dispose of, have been entirely dependent for
support upon the contributions of the charitable. The
mode of relief was by a Committee composed of the local
magistrates and clergymen, and, of our own knowledge,
we can state, that a more charitable and actively benevo-
lent body of men do nut exist than the clergy and ma-
gistracy of Paisley. To spare as much as possible the
feelings of the poor people, many of whom had been in
very respectable circumstances, and hundreds of whom
had never before sought relief, the Committee appointed
tickets to be given to each individual, entitling the
bearer to the small pittance of one shilling and twopence
a week, being but twopence for daily sustenance. For
this small sum, inadequate to sustain nature, such as were
able to work, were compelled to labour ten hours
daily. Frequent • meetings of the starving operatives
were held, and , the Committee was petitioned to
increase the weekly allowance. While these
complaints were making, Commissioner TWISLETON
arrived in Paisley to superintend the distribution of the
relief fund. He at once informed the poor people that
relief was only to be given in meal, bread, and potatoes,
and that, if they did not like that, no part of the dona-
tions contributed by the QUEEN and her 3linisters were
to be advanced. The humiliation of carrying their al-
lowance of provisions from a public chari-
table store, was deeply • felt by a population
previously supported, and supporting others, by honest
induStry. Hunger, however, compelled them to submit.
But having neither fire to cook the oatmeal, nor salt to
flavour it, nor soap with which to cleanse their poor ap-
parel, they represented to the Committee that some trifle
Of money should be given them to purchase these neaes-
series. The Committee, seeing the reasonableness of
this dEmand, resolved that a fourth of the pit-
tance granted them should . be given in money,
but at the end of one • week the Commis-

sinner rescinded it, and apprised the Committee
that they had no more power to interfere, as the
Government had taken upon itself to manage and apply
the relief fund. Having assumed the functions of the
Committee, he confined the allowances to bread, meal,
and potatoes, in the proportion of six shillings weekly to
married men with families, that being the maximum.
As porridge could not be eaten-without salt, or cooked
without fire, the poor creatures who received this were
obliged to sell part of it at 20 per cent. loss to provide
these necessaries, by which the sum for their maintenance
is reduced to the wretched pittance of one penny half a
farthing a day ! When remonstrated with, the -Com-
missioner told the Relief Committee that in treating the
unhappy sufferers thus inhumanly his object was to
make them as miserable as possible, in order to drive them
to locate themselves elsewhere. The petitioners declare
that this thousands of the starving poor would cheerfully
do, but that they know not where to find employment ;
and that, fearing that such usage may drive the people
to desperation, they implore the House of Commons to
interfere, so as to obtain for the miserable artisans more
adequate relief, administered in a way less offensive to
their feelings. •
This is the substance of the Paisley petition, to which
we invite the attention of the House of Commons and
the country. We know not what conditions Sir
R. PEEL, Sir J. GRAHAM, and such of their colleagues
as voted towards the Paisley relief fund, attached to
their donations.; but we feel perfectly assured that none
whatever attached to the gift of our gracious QUEEN.
She, at least, never dreamt of making her benevolent
donation a means of humiliating and putting to shame
her hard-working and loyal subjects of Paisley. We
state distinctly that we regard the refusal of the Com-
missioner to place the QUEEN'S donation at the
disposal of the Relief Committee, as an insult,
on the part of those under whose orders he acted, to the
sacred person of her MAJESTY. We will not mince
matters. The QUEEN bcuntifuliy and benevolently con-
tributed to the Relief Fund raised by the Committee
without attaching any condition to her gift, and it was
an insult to the QUEEN to command that it should be
withheld from the famishing poor if they insisted upon
obtaining fuel to cook their scanty allowance of food.
Nor shall the QUEEN remain ignorant of the way
in which her benevolent donation was disposed of. Her
MAJESTY shall hear of the conditions upon which only
the famishing poor of. Paisley were to have any part of
her Royal bounty extended to them. As to the Mem-
bers of the Cabinet, we leave them to explain the con-
ditions attached to their donations, to the House of
Commons. We trust some Member will have the man-
liness to give them an opportunity of doing so at the first
sitting of the House.
We entirely disapprove of the appointment of a Com-
missioner to superintend the relief of the starving poor
of Paisley. That duty should have been left to the local
magistracy, assisted by the clergy. These persons know
the temper and disposition of the people better ; they
can tell exactly which case of distress is the more urgent;
and they only can know when it may be desirable to
relax the rules Of relief laid down for all ordinary oc-
casions. Relieving the poor brings them in familiar con-
tact with them, and acquaints them with their indi-
vidual habits, thoughts, and feelings. These are
most important reasons why the relief of local distress
should ever be entrusted to the local authorities. An-
other good reason is, that the local magistracy and priest-
hood have excellent opportunities afforded them for
instilling honest and virtuous principles into the minds
of the recipients of public charity. They know
whom to admonish, whom to encourage, whom to
spare the distressing • exhibition of woes, long
concealed front every eye but the all-seeing sleep-
less eye of GOD. It is not alone cold, hard charity,
consisting of so many mouthsful of digestible material
food, that a starving people want. They want sym-
pathy, words of kindness, and encouragement to hope
for better times, hardly less than food for the belly.
The people starve whose minds are not fed as well as
their bodies.

We seldom remember any meesure adopted by a Go-
vernment which caused such general and well-founded
complaints as the late bungling financial trick of Mr.
IIt7NRY GOULBURN. Accounts from the country repre-
sent the proclamation against light gold as even more
injurious there than in London. In small towns and
villiges it has paralyzed trade, and, independent of the
alarm excited, has caused a serious loss to those least
able to bear it. Various schemes for meeting the evil,
and retaliating on the Bank of England and the Go-
vernment, have been suggested, and some go so far
as to recommend a run upon the Bank for gold, in order
to bring the selfish concoctors of this unjust and mis-
chievous scheme to their senses. Unjust certainly it is,
in the strongest sense of the word ; fur not only are the
last holders of light sovereigns made to suffer .the loss
which should have been borne by the public, but not the
slightest preparation has been made for meeting a panic
which all men of common sense might have fore,.
seen. Nay the very parties who have been privy
to the plot are increasing the evil by withholding
any little relief in their power. When there is almn-
. dance of silver in the country, and the distress of the
working classes generally is greater than at any period
in the memory of man, a wise and paternal Government
would have taken these circumstances into account, and,
by having a large quantity of silver coin ready for cir,
culation, would thus have effectually prevented the poor
man from 'being robbed a second time. This has not
been done, and the Bank even refuses to issue to
any extent the silver coin in their possession,
thereby wantonly adding to the original injury. The
CHANCELLOR of the ExcnEQuER adds insult to in-
jury, by pointiug out the 56th of GEORGE 111. as a
remedy for one par., of the evil. "I am glad," said he
the other night, "to take this opportunity of making it
known that those who refuse to take the legal coin of
the realm are liable to imprisonment." This is great
consolation, indeed, to tell a poor man who has not two
sovereigns to rub against each other, that he may bring
an action against a rich tradesman, Who refuses
the legal coin, except at a loss of five or ten per cent.
We are only surprised that the House of Commons did
not drown the voice of the speaker by one universal
shout of scorn and indignation. The poor man, who is
the greatest sufferer in this matter, cannot go to law.
The law affords him little or no protection fit ninety-