The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1841-12-21
DISTRESS OF THE POOR IN ENGLAND.

DISTRESS OF THE POOR IN ENGLAND.
What we owe 10 God for the blessings Of free
institutions cannot be better seen, than when we
contrast condition with that Of other countries
ia Epg land, of the richest and freest countries
under monarchy, a large portion OF the people
are literally starving, in the midst of plenty. vi
cious Legislation, in which the peoples voice
cannot be heard, avors ancient monopolies to the
grinding of The face of the poor
The London Patriot contains an article from
Rev. J. w Massie of Manchester, setting forth the
dstresses Of the poor; from which make the
follow ing extracts:
"There is but too painful evidence in this vicn-
| ity that there are thousands of unemployed me-
chanics whose resources exhausted and whose
families are famished, no. knowing whence the
nourishment OF to~day is to come; and many oi
them tasting food for twenty four hours, or I'LL
they have begged it from their trembling neigh
bors. | have been assured from the personal in
spection of parties worthy Of credit, that in the
towns Of Manchester & Stafford there ten thou
and who though the able bodied among them be
employed, have not more than sIxpence halfpenny
per week for the sustenance, rent and clothing of
each person; while the streets and lanes haun-
ted by the wretched and gaunt fgures-,he unem-
ployed paupershed and squallid forms Of fellow
subjects begging for bread"
This greve TO say, is not aIl--but we daily APP
prehend the reduction of others heretofore in com
fort small traders, shopkeepers, &c. to the same
level of AFFECT wretcbcdness and epess poverty.
We hear Of like misery and woe from surrounding
| towns from Bolton, Ashton, Stockport, Roch
dale, and many other districts. Nor is this suffer
ing confined Lancaster, Yorkshire, Staffordsbire
or Wales. But the cry of despair resounds through
out the country. From Scotland we hear Of moth.
ers mixing the dust of wood with the food of their
children, or attempting to silence the knawings OF
hunger with the miserable shadow Of aliment IN
stead of The substance, by which the craving appe-
lite of their offspring is Knocked rather than satia
ted; while in town paisley with population
of sixty thousand, eight hundred families have
been for Weeks subsisting on the eleemosynary as
sislance of their impoverished neighbors. This be-
side the ordinary helpless poor; one family in eve
ny seventeen is deriving pauper support from the
| casu a subscription of benevoIence Is il strange
if death find an easy prey among such population,
and produce fearful havoc soon? But what can stop
his ravages during winter amidst such restitution,
should the furnished victims remain in quiescent
he plessness and tame submission till then The
unemployed who pining in utter destltution,
and have appealed to the benevolence of the atfiu
ent and of government for The means to expalriate
themselves and their families to the farihest Tor
eign shores, where they may obtain labor and re-
ward for their industry, have repeatedly assured
me that it has been with difficulty they have re-
strained their younger companions from pllaging
the provision warehouses; around them, and they
have broken up bands of young men associated to
take by force rather than die by starvation, over
whom they had parental control If i've full