The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-14 00:00:00

J *it II n 4

• LONDON-:
TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 14, 1842.

- A new art has arisen in England. Our ingenious
people, heretofore -so renoWned for inventions that
have contributed to the power and enjoyment
of mankind, have now fallen on a contrivance of
a totally different character. They aro learning
and practising the art of now To STARVE. It
has made rapid progress amongst them, and the
the same genius seems to have taught them it at once
in different quarters of the country. In Scotland they
nail up the windows, Or 'shut out the day-light, in order
to keep the children in bed, and keep them quiet, for the
parents say they have nothing to give them to eat,
and cannot bear to hear their cries. In Yorkshire
and Lancashire they lie a-bed for two days together, and
pray, we are told, when they lie down, That they may
never wake more. They are quite ingeniouS in their
contrivances. They can get water, and they say, which
is worth the knowledge of physiologists, that by taking a
drink of water, and laying down, they lessen the pangs
of hunger. It is solemn, serious earnest, that the people
of the manufacturing districts, are learning the new art
of how to starve. .

Lord ASHLEY is about to take the children out Of
cod pits ; the following letter written by a lady de-
scribing the condition of the people between Wakefield
and Huddersfield, may make him pause in his career.
By getting a child to work in a coal pit, a family is
saved from starvation. Lord ASHLEY, and every friend
to the Corn-law, will read with attention this com-
munication :

The worsted weavers in the Grange Moor and Whitting dis-
trict are, and have been for seven or eight months past, suffer-
ing the greatest privation. With sixteen families lam per-
sonally acquainted; those living at some distance from me, I
have only known since their distress; not any of them average
more than one week's work in four, and this higher than most ;
for this work they are very insufficiently remunerated. One or
two have had a child employed in the coal. pits, and their wages
have supplied food for a day or two in the beginning of the
week, turnip-tops during the winter furnishing frequently the
rest. If Lord Ashley's Bill passes, this employment in the
pits must also cease, and then their condition will indeed be
hopeless.
Nettles have almost supplied the place of other food in some
families. These families work for employers living nearly four
miles from them ; day by day they travel this distance, hoping
to find a piece ready. One day, in calling, I found
one of the wcmen in a very exhausted state,
having a child of six months old deriving all its
nutriment from her, who to our inquiries of " How they had
been getting on this week 2" replied, 1 have not at this mo •
ment one thing eatable in the house, nor a farthing to purchase
any. I went yesterday to Norton's to try for work, and it
rained very hard as I returned. I felt so weak and
disheartened, for I had nat met with any work,
that I had to sit down many a time on my road
home, and I knew I was coming home wet through to a house
without fire, to find seven hungry children, and nothing to give
them. The younger ones cried, as if their hearts would break
for hunger, when I put them to bed. You see, Ma'am, they
have not the sense to be patient when they are hungry
as older ones are." This woman bad" not the means
of buying a little thread, and, therefore, could not
make up the clothes given to her. Two or three of
these families have ten children each, and though their clothes
are very pocr in almost all, there is much cleanliness preserved.
Perhaps the most distressed among them is a saddler, his
wife, and seven children. These people have been sold up for
rent, and they bad merely a bed, stool, and table in the house.
They have been so respectable, that they could not make up
their minds to ask relief ; when we found them, they had all
iemained in bed, two days being entirely without food, or the
means of procu ing any. I name these sixteen families, being
under my particular notice, but I have not a doubt that for
miles round, the people are suffering in the same degree, or
nearly so, as each day add to the list of our distressed acquaint.
ante.

With all this suffering, a lesson cf tatience and trust in God
is taught us—few complaints, much lit p 2, rod great thankful-
ness to those whose hand is stretched cu... to aonVert and assist,
is every where exhibited.