232 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

 DISIRKSS IN ENGLAND. 



I no weekly earnings, no parish relief. {Hear, hear.) ! 

 Tliat was one instance.' We fear Leeds mayl 

 stand for a sample of nearly every town in the 

 manufucturing districts. Winter is rapidly ad- 

 Our readers liurdly need to be reminded thnt the vancinj on a population without cinploytiient aud 

 papers have lately quoted repeatedly from the Eng- without property, "hat they had having been parl- 

 liah papers in relation to the distress said to pre- Ld wii|, i,i order to supply their most pressing 

 vail in England. Wp cannot refrain from present- wants. It was stated too by Dr. Siniles, that ' the 

 ing a few of the paragraphs to awake commisera- small groeerii were failing and becoming bank- 

 tion ami>ng ourselves and to reveal, at least, by rupts in largo numbers. Many were nr-t able to 



contrast the privileges and advantages of the la 

 boring classes in our own country : — 



" A public meeting of the inhabitants of Leeds, 

 was held a few weeks since, to investigate the con- 

 dition of the unemployed poor — and a report care- 

 fijily drawn up from detailed accounts, was read to 

 the meeting. The extent of destitution as repre- 

 sented in this report, is indeed frightful. It ap- 

 pears that there arc Itcenti/ tliousand individuals in 

 Leeds who are living on II 1-2 pence a week each 

 — about Iwnily cents ! The report said : 



" Were the committee desirous of producing 

 sensation alone, they might possibly recite numer- 

 ous cases of soul-harrowing privation communi- 

 cated by the enumerators. They will only state 

 generally, that in scores of instances, the f luimer- 

 ators were obliged to write with the books placed 

 on their knees, in consequence of the absence of 

 every artii.'lc of furniture that might be made avail- 

 able for resting the book upon ; and in many, very 

 many instances, such was the manifest destitution, 

 that little else than the damp walls whicli inclose 

 thorn, constitute the only title to ' home' which the 

 miserable inmates could claim. In conclusion, 

 your committee beg leave to state that they have 

 not caused the purlieus of the town to be explored 

 for the purpose of swelling the amount of destitu- 

 tion in the report, as several confined places, noto- 

 rious for their permanent misery, are not included 

 in the enumeration." The rending of the report 

 caused a deep sensation in the meeting. 



The most harrowing descriptions were given by 

 some of the visitors, of the scenes they hod wit- 

 nessed. 'The cases of distress,' said Dr. Sniiles 

 (editor of the Leeds Times,) ' of extreme distress, 

 that had come under his notice (hat morning, had 

 harrowed up his very soul. (Hear, hear 

 was one case which he would particularly uion- 

 tion. He had noted down the name, and he. v.as 

 sure, if any doubts existed, individuals might sat- 

 isfy themselves ns to the correctness of the state- 

 ments. At the end of Brooke street there^was a 

 small cellar dwelling, nine feet by twelve, into 

 which they were introduced by the enumerator. 

 The dwelling was so considerably beneath the 

 street, that only half of the window was above it. 

 It was a damp, disagreeable, ill-lighted, ill-aired 

 den. {Hear, hear.) In that apartment they found 

 three families, con.«isling of sixteen individuals, 

 nine who slept in it every night. (Sensation.) 

 There were four adults, and twelve children. Six 

 individuals constituting one family, slept upon a 

 litter of straw, huddled together not like human 

 beings, not even like animals, fur their situation 

 was nothing to be compared willi the comfort of 

 our dogs and horses in our stables. (Hear, hear.) 

 Other four or five slept on a bed of shavings, and 

 the remaining live slept on another miserable bed 

 in the apartment. When they entered, the poor 

 mother was weeping, her infant was on her knee 

 in the last stage of a fatnl disease, dying without 

 any medical assistancs. (Sensation.) 'J'he family 

 were entirely destitute, no means of subsistence, 



pay lli<;ir debts. This again acted on middle class 

 men in a higher condition of life ; and he could 

 state, what most of them perhaps knew, that a 

 large number of the first class tradesmen had re- j 

 cently become bankrupts.' " 



Another paper, the Liverpool Mercury of the 

 30th ult., says : 



" The winter is not yet commenced, yet the gen- 

 eral distress throughout the country has arrived at 

 such a point, that nothing but a wholesale famine 

 can carry it further. From Paisley the accounts 

 are frightful, — so frightful that even Sir Robert 

 Peel, although he still adheres to his non-interven- 

 tion aa a Minister, declares his readiness to for- 

 ward a private subscription for its amelioration as 

 an individual. In the Potteries, famine stalks 

 abroad ; thousands are starving ; and those who 

 would cruelly attempt to delude the sufferers into 

 the belief that machinery is the cause of their dis- 

 tress, may read in the general destitution there, 

 the refutation of their foolish falsehood. In the 

 Potteries there is no other machine worked but the 

 potter's wheel mentioned in Scripture. In the me- 

 tropolis we have a specimen of the general desti- 

 tution in the fact that even printer-s, usually the 

 most prosperous of the classes who live by labor, 

 are appealing to private benevolence, with the ap- 

 paling fact lliat twelve hundred compositors and 

 pressmen in London are unemployed, and many of 

 them, with large families, are actually in a star- 

 ving state." 



The following is nn extract from a letter giving 

 an account of the distress among the working 

 classes, prevailing at Stockport : 



" All the other trades are equally suffering. 

 .'.,.""" 'Such is the extreme starvation point to which they 

 am reduced, that their wives are to be seen beg- 

 ging from door to door, or gathering the disgusting 

 offiils tliat are to be met with in the streets. Meat 

 and water are a luxury which few can boast of, 

 and as for fire, whole houses are without a spark. 

 Last week upwards of two hundred fresh men turn- 

 ed out for wages, and there is every reason to fear 

 that, ere long, that number will bo frightfully in- 

 creased. The constant cry of the men is, 'Are we 

 to die of starvation, or see our children fall before 

 our faces from hunger, while plenty abounds in the 

 land ?' The situation of the females beggars all 

 description — naked, shivering with cold, and faint 

 from hunger, lliey ore parading the streets, and im- 

 ploring with tears and supplications, assistance for 

 themselves and their famishing children." 



After giving some thrilling accounts of the dis- 

 tress prevailing in Yorkshire, the London Atlas 

 says : 



" This is but a sample of the accounts from all 

 parts of the country. Manchester, Liverpool, Bir- 

 mingham, Paisley, Norwich, Preston — almost eve- 

 ry town in England or Scotland where the popul.i- 

 lion is dense, has the same talc to tell. The mid- 

 dle classes cannot assist ; they arc tliemselves 

 falling into actual want. Distress such as this 



must affect the capitalist as well as the 

 and it must spread upwards and downwards, . 

 the intermediate classes between wealth and 1 

 are absorbed in the calamity. Meanwhile, 

 crease of the deposits at the Bank of Engl 

 the effect even upon those who stand rein 

 from all ehances of immediate distress ; and 

 this is going on, bread is nearly double the 

 in London which it is in Paris." 



and I 



It is said of the eccentric John Randolph, t 

 political opponent who wished to draw him ii 

 quarrel, one day boldly met him on the sidewall 

 Washington, with the remark, "1 do not turn 

 for every vile scoundrel I meet." "I always 

 said Randolph, with an expressive waive of 

 hand ; and suiting the action to the word, he tm» 

 ed one side and went on his way. 



Curious Law. — It is said that there is a 1|*[ 

 among the Arabs which permits a man to diva 

 any of the four wives allowed him, who do] 

 make good bread. Fortunate for some of the fa 

 ionables of the present day, there is no such U> I 

 ifi force in this country ! — Ezch. pap. 



OKKEN'.S PATENT SrRA\V CUTTKB. 



JOSKPH BKl-.<-K. .V Cv). ni ine.\cr- Knii.! 

 lural Warehouse and Seed Store Nos, 51 and .'.2 Korili 

 kel Slrcel, have for sale, Green's Palonl Siraw 

 Suilk Culler, operating on a mechanical princijile not 

 applied to any implement Corlliis purpose. The mo.sl 

 inenl effects of Ihis applicalinii, and some of the conr- 

 peculiarilics of the macliine are : 



1. So great a reduction of ihc quantum of power reqo 



to use it, that llie strength of a half grown boy is sufticfc 

 to work it cfhciently. 



2. Wilh even -this moderate power, ileasilyculstwohi*- 

 els a ininuie, which is full twice as fast as has been .1 nan 

 hy any oiher machine even when worked by borec ur >i<ii 

 power. 



3. Tlie knives, owing to the peculiar manner in whichllB 

 cut, require sharpening less often Ihau those of any ollv 

 straw cutter. 



4. The machine is simple inits construction, made nndfi 

 together very strongly. Ii is therefore not so lint'ie nlli 

 crmplicatedniacbines in generaJ use tu get mil ol oi :fr 



UUINDSTONBS, ON FRICTION ROL.L.KUX. 



Grindstones of ditlercnl sizes hung on friclion roil. -s nt 

 moved wilh a fuol trcadcr, is found lo Lc a grcal l;ll^'n>» 

 ment on the prcteul mode of hanging grindstones. Hi 

 case wilh which they move upon the rollers, renders ikB 

 very easy in turn wilh the fool, by wliich the labor of m 

 man is saved, and Ihe person in ihe act of gtiniiiiii:. • 

 govern the stone more lo his mind Uy having the lonipfcli 

 control of his work. Stones hung in this monn'-r iir»l» 

 coming daily more in use, and wherever used, give uatWt 

 sal salislaclion. The rollers can be altoched lo tloncs hii 

 in the common way. 



For sale i.y JOS'lil'II BRECK & CO., Nos. 01 »«<»• 

 North Market Boston. July 14 



NEW K NGLAND FARMKU. 



A WEKKLT PAPFR. 



Torms, $apor year in arfrance, or f 2 50 ifnotfli' 

 within thirty days. 



N. U. — Postninstora arc permitted by law to frinitt' 

 Kibscriptiona and remiltancti for newspapers, withwK 

 expeiue to lubacribem. 



TUTTLB AHD DEBKETT, PKINTERS. 



